Evorel Conti releases only a small amount of estradiol daily, 50 micrograms. Now consider that during a menstrual cycle, the woman produces 60-150 micrograms during the first phase of her cycle, 200-400 micrograms around ovulation, and 150-300 micrograms during the luteal phase and 50-70 micrograms just before menstruation (i.e. PMS!).
Source: N Engl J Med, Vol. 346, No. 5, January 31, 2002
Typically, a woman feels best the first half of her cycle, when 60-450 micrograms is produced daily, without any progesterone.
Hence, it may well be the estradiol is insufficient, especially considering there is a progestogen included in the patch, norethisterone acetate, which is anti-estrogenic.
I suspect you are feeling better because the progestogen component is removed. This makes most sense considering what the research has so far found.
Returning to the above statistics and cyclical production of estradiol, an average of 225 micrograms is produced every cycle with progesterone only starting to having an enhanced effect half of the cycle. This implies about 200 micrograms of estradiol daily would duplicate this, with either a progestogen given every 14 days OR less progestogen daily and continuously, or a stronger dose given just 7 days. This also means most women are being underdosed and the progestogen-estrogen ratio is too high.