I have a big ring of 45t and a center ring of 42t so I see the comparison every time I shift and in your case I don’t think the 2t change would be enough to notice. In my case I have a wide spaced cassette that gives me maybe a 10% jump between gears and having that slight change in between fills the gap. But if I only had to have one it wouldn’t really matter much 42 or 44.

The suggested crank replacement above sounds like a better way to go.