Hey Amanda,
Thanks for your request 
I certainly hear where you’re coming from, and encourage you to add your vote to the existing feature request here, regarding the removal of ‘copy’ from the duplicate tasks
You mention that you have recurring subtasks for different assets, I understand you want to steer away from vendors/third-party offers, but i wanted to draw your attention to this free app, available via our apps marketplace: Subitem Templates. It allows you to create a template of subitems, and apply that template across different items in your account.
Let me know your thoughts!