Look at it from the bright side, if everyone uses it incorrectly it will eventually become the correct version. That’s how we got so many romance languages in the first place.

Formally, “hubiera”/“hubiese” is only used within subclauses, i.e «si lo hubiera visto, habría hecho algo» etc. They never stand as the only verb and don’t appear in simple clauses. You can’t say “hubiera hecho algo”, it’s “habría hecho algo”. Here, the subjunctive (hubiera) is doing the same job as “were” in english, and the conditional (habría) is equivalent to “would”: «if I were luckier, it would have worked out». This is the case with subjunctives in general, they mostly only ever appear in subclauses other than very specific exceptions (such as negative imperative or vestigial expressions like «Dios quiera que…»). The trick is learning which subclauses use indicative and which use subjunctive :)

Informally, though, natives will tell you that it doesn’t matter because it truly doesn’t. The formula “if (subjunctive) then (subjunctive)” is understood by everybody with the same meaning as “if (subjunctive) then (conditional)”, and you can even use it in formal settings such as when talking to your boss, at least in Spain.

Source: Am native, from Spain. Good luck with the language learning!

Can I help? I don’t think so. Can I make it worse? Maybe, because there’s also “hubiese”.

All I know is they’re different in the sense that hubiera is more related to you personally and habría is more related to “was there”

Hubiera echo algo antes de que pasara.

Habría una posibilidad de haber echo algo?

Also I’m more familiar with Mexican Spanish and refuse to speak in Spain’s terms

You are doing great 😃

Wegen dir, oder deinetwegen?