How do I achieve this simple shape? I want to round off one level of the mesh into the next. As you can see, I’ve tried loop cuts both ways but it always ends up looking off because of how distorted the last few faces are. Is it necessary that I add an absolutely ridiculous amount of loops here? There must be a better way.



This is the effect I’m trying to achieve.



John
you should try to mark those edges and use the bevel modifier with the option set to bevel weight, instead of using way too many cuts like you did.
Dissolve all edges loops between the two cuts.
OR use a bevel on a sharp corner edge with a suitable amount of division, like in my drawing. Usually, 3 or 4 cuts are enough to achieve the effect you want, provided that you also have a sufficient amount of geometry (for example a subdivision modifier in the stack).

Hope it helps. Check my drawing on your example.