Using HTML and CSS for your CV solves every formatting problem that Word creates. The frustration you have experienced with Word is not your fault. It is a limitation of the tool itself.
Word was designed for processing text documents, not for creating visually refined, structurally complex, precisely aligned layouts. A CV demands the latter, but Word was built for the former.
HTML and CSS give you pixel-level control over every element. The layout is identical on any device, on any operating system, in any browser. You can use responsive design so it looks good on mobile too. Version control is trivial because it is just text. Exporting to PDF is a single Ctrl+P away, and the result is perfect.
The learning curve is not as steep as you might think. You do not need to become a front-end engineer. A complete CV requires roughly one hundred lines of HTML, most of which is content. The actual styling takes fewer than thirty lines.
From now on, when you write your CV, a report, or any formal document, consider HTML over Word. In any scenario that requires polishedtypography, HTML and CSS are the superior choice.