Saddle sores @ narrow chami – pls help!

Thanks for reading. Very grateful for any help.
In summary – I’ve been riding for just over a year, haven’t changed bike, saddle, position, shorts – anything. Including body shape/weight (I’m a freak who’s been 6ft and 71 kg since adulthood). I ride x3/week. During the last two months I have developed saddle sores after every ride, which means I can’t touch the bike for a week+. They hurt. Red chaffed skin which then develops into boils. Nice. It’s destroying my fitness, and having a knock-on effect on other parts of my life. Suffice to say, I need to ride.
I never wear the shorts more than once, use MucOff chamy cream, wash kit in antibacterial laundry additive, change as soon as I return home, use antibacterial soap, and Sudocreme. Not much more I can do.
By process of elimination I think it might be friction, caused by most of my shorts (decent enough, gel) having channels (for “airing” – total BS) which encourage the chamy to fold and crease. I have other shorts with no channels, and I guess they also crease, as they too cause this.
1) can gentle friction cause this sort of injury, I guess I do lean forwards more than when I started cycling,
2) I would be hugely grateful for tips on narrow or minimal chamois. To be honest, I don’t get how they are really meant to work, any sort of pad will crease when you’re sitting on a narrow saddle and your legs are so close they’re touching. I tried running leggings for no chamy- error. Molto pain.
Thank you.