Rear-ended By An Uninsured Semi-truck And Feeling Hopeless

I hope this is OK to post. Location: California, US

Long story short: I was hit by an uninsured motorist driving a commercial semi truck (owned by a trucking company, but not one of the big national ones) on a California highway, and neither my insurance nor the personal injury attorney I reached out to seem to think I'll be able to recover any damages and process seems stuck and I don't know what to do.

About a month ago I was driving home from a second job around 10PM and was hit by a speeding commercial truck on the freeway. We both pulled over and I called CHP to make a police report. The back end of my sedan was smashed in and I immediately worried it would be a total loss.

The driver declined to provide me with his ID or any insurance information. He claimed he needed to call his boss, and as we waited for the cops to show up he kept urging me to accept cash in exchange for not filing an insurance claim or police report. I declined. He allowed me to take a photo of the truck's registration, which I realized later (I was flustered and scared in the moment) was WAY expired.

The officer who made our police report let me know that the driver was not providing insurance info (he still claimed his boss needed to tell him over the phone; apparently boss did not have it either.) I took as many photos as I could of my car, his truck, the trailer it was pulling, and the officer's badge number, before driving home (car was driveable although I was paranoid and shaking).

Since then, I've felt let down and hopeless at every turn: my insurance continues to call me (even today, as a matter of fact) to ask me what happened because they have a "new claim" and no information on it. I've provided the full story, the police report, photos, everything I can think of (multiple times, online and over the phone), and each time I reach out to my insurance company it's like they've never heard of me before. And that's if I can get through the maze of AI menus and voices to speak to an actual person.

My car has been repaired (I paid my deductible and insurance paid the rest). edit: MY insurance paid, hence me paying the deductible - I filed because the at-fault driver is a presumed uninsured motorist. Depending on who I speak to at my insurance company, they've either discovered the commercial trucking company HAS insurance (State Farm, they found it through a reverse license plate search?) or DOESN'T HAVE insurance (...it's a smaller company but how can you operate a trucking company without auto insurance...?). The paralegal for the attorney I spoke to says it's "not likely" I'll even be able to recover my $500 deductible, let alone physical therapy and mental health therapy costs I've incurred since the accident.

Edited to add: at this point I worry about continuing physical therapy because I cannot afford it and it's sounding less and less likely the at-fault driver, their company, or their maybe-nonexistent insurance, will reimburse me for anything.

Is there anything I can do? It feels wrong that the "lesson" here is to not have car insurance because that's how you skirt responsibility for injuring someone and damaging their property, but perhaps I'm being childish.

Any advice would be appreciated.