Goblins outside the cave shoots us through the bushes without breaking stealth. That's not how that works.

Goblins can hide as a bonus action. Are you sure thats not how that works?

The problem was each map would take a bit to load. and there was nothing for us to do on some maps. That couldn't have just been theatre of the mind. I may be mis understanding, but you need maps for combat / exploration stuff, because of movement positioning and spell ranges.

You do not. In 5e grid is an optional rule.

So when I see a grid combat map, I think, "Ok here is where the adventure must be. Lets stick with it." but that didn't happen.

Thats technically metagaming. (I will leave it up to you to decide if that is bad or not.)