Hills and gear ratios

My bike came with 170mm cranks, 52/36 chainring, and 11-30 cassette. I have short legs and changed to 165mm cranks to have more of a window between unhinging my knee at the bottom and hip impingement at the top. On flat land it's great as I feel like I'm making power through more of the stroke and just feel like I have more space. But I live half way up a volcano where every ride starts and ends with a climb to the other side, and on hills this new setup is killing me. I tried moving to a 50/34 chain ring but still don't have the power or cadence to make it over the hill coming back.

So, I'm wondering if 2 or 4 teeth on the cassette would make that much of a difference? Or maybe I should go back to the longer cranks. My natural cadence with the 170mm cranks is about 100, and I'm sure I can eventually find a seat height that works, it's just very fine tuning as I don't have much range either way.

Thanks for reading and any thoughts.