Hey everyone, first time poster here.

I'm trying to replace all my kitchen cabinet hinges for soft-close hinges. The cabinet hinges we have are the ones originally installed in the house.
I bought a pack of Blum soft close (38N) and I thought it was going to be an easy upgrade but guess I was wrong.

Here are the problems I ran into:
1- I tried simply swapping the old ones for the new ones but the screw holes in the door did not line up correctly but were very close. If I try drilling new holes I'm assuming I'll just end up with one really large one. To top it off, the new hinges are not completely flush due to the dowels in the door. See photos 1 and 2 attached.
2- I tried removing the dowels but they won't come out. I tried cutting around the top where there was paint, tried the pliers method, tried screwing and pulling it out, nothing worked. I'm at the point where I think I might end up damaging the door more. (photo 3 attached)
3- I then simply tried screwing them on by tilting the blum hinges so that at least one of the holes would fit so that I could see how it'd look. (photo 4)
4- The problem is that after doing that, the gap between the door and the cabinet is now much wider than I had before. See photo 5

I'm beginning to think I'm way over my head on this. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for all the help!
Giuliano