Maybe stupid, but until recently I hardly ever used a slide template for a visual. My template used to be the white or black page, and everything on it was created from scratch. Data chart, insert followed by 15 actions to kill the standard PowerPoint formatting. Same for tables. Same for text boxes.
So, I am a late discoverer of the slide template. It requires some time though to set things up in a clever way. Maybe I gave you an idea as well.
Another big time saver: a custom toolbar, here is a very old post on the 19 buttons you need in a PowerPoint tool bar.
