In short, the difference between semantic review and syntactic review. By syntactic review, I mean clozing isolated words and focusing on the rote completion of sentences instead of genuinely thinking about the question and recalling the answer, which would be the semantic review. ANother example of syntactic review is by recalling just after noticing a pattern “ahh yea the question that started with how and mentions X person is that answer”-> mindless repetitions.
Syntactic reviews will lead to good recall in Anki but no applicability in real life as you are experiencing. I experienced the same during my first years using Anki.
The biggest factor to change this situation requires no add-on but a change of mindset. Focus on the meaning, not the phrasing. Avoid cloze deletions until you get used to it; Q&A are easier in this regard.
Here I share a real example (it’s software agnostic): https://youtu.be/hYDiHwbs5uA?t=3390