BTW if you didn’t mod your printer you don’t have direct drive. Bowden tube is not long, but its still bowden setup. I’m not sure what sticky thing is, but it can be filament, PTFE or dust (on the outside of your filament - you can guide filament trough some kind of sponge to clean it before extruder). Nothing else should be there. If reducing retractions fixed the problem you might check your hotend fan. For high retractions you need proper cooling to avoid heat creep (assuming thats the problem). Not having all metal hotend with heat break makes it much harder ofc. What retraction settings do you use (now and before)?

You can also reduce stringing by increasing travel speed, using lower temps and smaller nozzle.