Lvl 8 stockfish: Stayed afloat in the opening - drowned in the endgame (help please!)

Hi folks,

I was able to carefully walk out of the Berlin Wall opening unscathed against stockfish lvl 8, and equalised at a point when all heavy pieces were traded off. Reaching this point itself was thanks to everyone’s helpful feedback on one of my earlier threads!

Now, we come straight to the endgame. At move 22, I played Ba3 and things started going downhill real fast from there. At that point in the game, I wanted to free up the e7 square for the knight so that in the future I could manoeuvre it to c6 (after playing c5) or to g6 (so that I can target the e5 pawn). Before playing 22...Ba3 I did consider some possible ramifications such as stockfish trying to trap my bishop or taking away my bishop pair advantage. However, in the game stockfish simply ended up getting passed pawns of the kingside.

My question is, at move 22, am I supposed to just sit and wait or try to play for an active plan of my own. In hindsight, the Be6 and Nf5 were good blockades of the kingside pawn majority. How would you have better approached this position, please let me know? Also, feel free to criticise other parts of the game, thank you! :)

The pair of knights apply loads of pressure in the center. Ba3 allowed white to push you back with g4 without you being able to swap a pair of knights with Nh4+ and somewhat simplify .
Black is not the one who is trying to win in the Berlin. Ba3 is just not in the spirit of the position. Next time just sit and wait.
Ad infinitum. That's the whole point of this opening. Like it or not.

Thanks @NobodyReally, I had a feeling during the game that sitting and waiting would be my best chance, but then again I would much rather try something funky and lose instead of playing on till move 150 and making a draw hahaha. Chess is very much a game of patience when both sides aren’t getting mated :)