Self-driving or high-speed rail in eastern China?

I'm planning a trip to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou in mid June with my partner. I already picked up trip packages for Shanghai and Suzhou so those two are locked in. I have an international driving permit and I'm planning to get a temporary Chinese driver's license at the Shanghai airport when I land.

The reason I want to drive is because I looked at the map and these three cities are super close to each other, and if we have a car we can stop at smaller towns in between . Feels like that would make the whole trip more flexible.

But my Chinese friend keeps telling me not to bother driving. She says the high-speed rail between those cities is like 30 minutes max and every station has English signs everywhere so we wouldn't get lost. She's pretty adamant that driving in China is stressful and not worth it.

My concern with the train idea is that once we arrive at each city we'd still need to grab taxis or ride apps to get between the hotel and every attraction and that sounds annoying to deal with multiple times a day. At least with a car we just go wherever whenever.

Has anyone here actually driven in China as a foreigner?? Is it manageable or should I just listen to my friend and do the train and taxi thing? I really want the freedom of a car but also don't want to make the trip miserable for myself lol.