I have been purling by bringing the yarn up from the bottom of my needle instead of wrapping around the top of my needle. I have been doing this so backwards.The finished product looks kind of the same when doing stockinette but when you flip to the knit stitch side, you can kind of see a little variance between right side and wrong side stitches. Should I change my technique or is this more of a go with the flow kind of thing? My way is bunch less difficult and I have never dropped a stitch.
Without pictures it is difficult to know exactly what you are doing and in what way the knit and purl rows look different, but to me it sounds like you do the purls with the combined style. This means that you need to approach the stitches on the right side from another direction or they will be twisted. If you search on youtube for “russian knitting” you will find some videos showing how combination knitting works. When done right it will produce the same result as any other knitting styles
I am knitting the Continental Combined style myself, so if you need any help with this style, just ask me.