We are in a hard water area and I stopped using pods or liquid in plastic bottles a few years ago. Apart from anything else, e.g. the plastic boxes being an absolute bugger to,open! - pods gum up the machine with gunk, as I found when doing a 90 deg empty wash with just soda crystals. The amount of dirty grey foam that appeared was astonishing, and still more during a 2nd such wash.
I now use soda crystals with powder from a cardboard carton - no fabric conditioner, which apparently also caused gunk - and a lot less powder than I’d once have used. Laundry is fine.
We have never used shower gel, just bar soap.