Issues with feature mod element

As the title says, I am having trouble using the feature mod element. My goal is to have a cactus feature that would generate in some of my custom desert biomes. Problem? First of all, the cacti spawn in 1-layer deep water blocks for no reason. They don't spawn any deeper than that, but if there is a 1-block-tall water pond somewhere, cacti occasionally do generate there - https://imgur.com/a/SOxD8qP . Second of all, cacti also spawn right next to solid blocks, occasionally they break right after they generate, but usually they just stay in place and look cursed. Now I've tried several of the condition placements blocks MCreator provides, none of them work. https://imgur.com/a/qTJ1R42 I tried every single one of these, they either do absolutely nothing or the conditions result in cacti not even spawning at all. Additional conditions for checking stuff like whether or not there's water where the cacti should be don't help either, in fact they tend to result in cacti spawning in thin air. And for some reason, the cacti feature that was there by default in each biome's settings got removed? 

In any case, I really don't understand what's up with the feature mod element, if I am doing something wrong then I'd kindly ask for someone to let me know how I should go about fixing my issues since currently it feels like all I can do is use structures instead.