3rd Year Analyst - What do I do now?

First time poster here, with a pretty multi-faceted, situational question.

I am a 3rd year analyst at a large BB (GS/JPM/MS/BAML). Went to a semi-target private undergrad, top 40 school with a 3.7+ GPA. I was the top ranked analyst in my class for the past two years.

I blew a lot of chances over the years to move over to PE / PC (got to 7 or 8 final round interviews, and never got an offer). I didn’t recruit this past year as I was pretty downtrodden from previous experiences, and frankly not a ton of opportunities popped up that fit my preferences w/r/t fund size and geography. I also knew that I was on track to become an associate (and still am), and had that in the back of my mind.

Now I’m regretting not having gone all out on recruiting. I can’t tell if it’s because I don’t love what the job becomes as you advance, because I think I would be more fulfilled in an investment role long term, because it feels like I failed and missed the next step on the proverbial ladder, or if it’s just a grass is greener type thing. I’m having a bit of an existential crisis thinking about what to do with my life, because it feels like the next few months, with the analyst to associate transition, basically put me on a set path (excl. Corp Dev) for the rest of my career. Obviously not the best time to be job hunting either, and I know I should be thankful to have a promotion coming / job at all these days.

I’ve lately been devoting some time to study for the GMAT in an effort to give myself as much optionality as possible in case it is not too late to move over to PE, either in the near term, or potentially after b-school. I’m pretty confident in my ability to score 730+ on the test after some early tests. Some questions below:

1) Are you still marketable for a decent MM PE or large Private credit shop as an associate? Recognize you would likely take a pay cut to do so.
2) Do people go straight from IB to B-School? If so, how competitive are you for M7 programs?
3) If answer to 2 is yes and competitive, how difficult is it to break into PE after b-school without prior PE experience?
3) Same question as above, but for private credit / direct lending?
4) How difficult is it to go from PC>B-school>PE?

Any other advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!