I don’t like nesting single use functions.

At a certain point this is necessary due to overall length. You don't want a single function that is hundreds of lines long - they suck to debug and to test. Single-use functions break that up into logical chunks that make it easier to understand.

The moment I follow a function and it’s just another abstraction for more functions I start feeling dread.

This can actually be ideal in many cases due to the Single-responsibility Principle. Think of the purpose of those functions as coordinating the workflow of the other functions.