You have long arm Avid single digit 5 v-brakes paired with a road brake/shifter lever which is a poor combination. STI, Ergo, Double tap, and microshift are all examples of road brake/shifter levers and none of them work with long arm v-brakes. The reason they (the levers) don't work with v-brakes is because they don't pull enough cable. So, you can get travel agents, which will change the cable travel to allow road brake/shifter levers to work with long arm v-brakes.

Also, you are confused by the double/triple thing. What you have on your bike is a shifter and brake lever in one. The shifter parts on the lever are independent from the braking parts. The shifter parts move the derailleurs through the gears and the braking parts move the brakes. So, when you see double or triple on the lever, they are referring to the shifter parts on the lever and not the braking parts.

As for the bike being cursed, I doubt it. You changed the crappy brakes that came on it for the wrong ones and because you couldn't figure out how to properly set up your derailleurs you disconnected front derailleur. If you can't fix it yourself, maybe a good shop could get you going.