I had an extremely painful problem years ago to where I could hardly walk. It was like nerves rubbing inside the pad of my foot right where the toes meet that pad. I was in Gatlinburg on vacation, couldn’t walk and was desperate so I bought a pair of these white plastic arch supports that goes from the arch to the back of the heel. I know most of these things are gimmicks but these “unloaded”
That front pad/ball of the foot area and allowed me to walk and I used them for quite some time and the issue went away. They let the arch and heel carry the load and that was what was needed in my case.