It would be interesting to know how many people are misdiagnosed.
I've always felt I was misdiagnosed as having sleep apnoea after falling asleep and having a vehicle crash.. I said all along the cause was the fact I'd been sleeping only three to five hours a night for about 10 years and my problem was one purely of massive fatigue.
I was unhappy that during the test in the hospital I had so many wires connected to me that I was unable to sleep on my side as I normally do.
This resulted in me snoring occasionally during the test night, and subsequently that meant I was deemed to have "mild sleep apnoea" according to the sleep specialist.
My wife has said I don't normally snore and I don't stop breathing during my sleep.
Although initially I felt using the CPAP gave me an improvement, mostly because it forced me to actually sleep more regular hours to stay compliant for the conditions on my professional driver licence status, I never found it allowed me to rest fully in sleep.
As a side sleeper and having shoulder and back problems that caused pain means I'm constantly turning from side to side.
Using a CPAP meant that I had to wake up sufficiently to move the hose above my head and also ensure my mask hadn't been dislodged in the roll to the opposite side.
Covid lockdowns put me out of business with my hire car service (no airport, no medical specialist, no clubs and pubs trip bookings from the clients I used to transport to various locations).. so since then I've retired and cancelled all my professional driver endorsements, now 68 years old and not interested in battling Sydney Australia traffic on a daily basis for 12 hours at a time anymore.
Since dropping the endorsements I also stopped using my CPAP just to see what difference it would make, now I can sleep seven and a half to nine hours totally undisturbed.. without subconsciously being worried about moving the hose and checking the mask I no longer wake sufficiently to notice I've even rolled over during the night.
So almost two years on for me stopping CPAP has been beneficial, but if I hadn't been put on it in the first place I probably wouldn't have changed my sleeping habits - which most likely have ended up with me killing myself, and possibly others, in another motor vehicle crash.
There are definitely those who need to be using a CPAP machine, for part of my time I worked in the aged care sector and knew many who had a genuine need.
But don't assume it will be a guaranteed "fix" for you, if you aren't getting proper benefit from it continue to work with your doctor and specialists to find the best answer for YOU.. the odds are in most cases the specialists would be correct in their diagnosis