What am I not getting about Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy....

**Edit edit: A very kind Redditor explained the context and the purpose of the book and I'm back on board. I was taking it as a stylized and realistic account of the American West, rather then a philosophical response to idealism and the great human myth. The plan is to read some more context and dive back in.
Cheers lads :)

*Edit: Getting a lot of downvotes, this is an honest question! If Meridian is historically realistic, should I read a factual book before rereading? Or is it not supposed to be realistic? Or is this a question which is asked a lot and redditors are sick of? I did google it, but the posts I found were more talking about the severity of the violence rather then the realism and problematic connotations.....

NSFW due to dead baby tree in Blood Meridian...

I don't know whether to stop reading - I'm only five chapters into Blood Meridian. Still, I don't understand why it's been compared to the likes of Moby Dick.

The writing is beautiful, and I understand the demystifying of the Old West and the discussions of human depravity, but otherwise, what's the deal?

Before this chapter, I sort of went with it because the writing is good. However, I draw the realism line at a tree full of babies strung up with their eyes gouged out. If this was scifi, or game of thrones, then sure, whatever. But the book implies a real group of people, native Americans, did this. I was already uncomfortable with the animalistic descriptions of American Indians, but figured the Kid is the POV character so whatever. The attribution to such a comically evil deed to American's is just wild. I even googled it, just to check I wasn't loosing my mind, but I can't find any reference to anyoen doing this. The execution of babies has occurred in many different places and times - but stringing up mutilated baby corpses like Christmas bobbles - not something that seems super common.

I loved Moby Dick because it is meandering and sometimes poorly written, but genuinely feels like a chunk of the time. I love the scene where the narrator is sitting up in the crows nest day dreaming, unconcerned by the coin Ahab has offered the one who spots the white whale. It's beautiful and feels authentic.

Meridian feels very well written so weird plot moments like baby tree-decorations don't feel authentic but rather designed to shock. Which feels even weirder when there are long, pretty descriptions that don't rely on shock to make the reader feel.

I've been recommended it, and I do like the writing ("the urine-coloured sun rose" has stuck in my head) so I want to keep reading. But I at this rate, I'll probably give up at the end of the next chapter.

Can someone explain what I'm missing?