Nobody gets it all 100% right. I’m sure we can all agree to that. But determining the proper interpretation is about taking a holistic approach to the scriptures, allowing them to in effect interpret themselves by seeing how other parts of the Bible regard that part. If all I had was Genesis 1, I would still default to a literal understanding because there’s nothing in the text to suggest otherwise; however, I might be open to a different take on it much more so than I am now, without all the rest of the Bible’s commentary on it. But with the rest of the Bible to go on, there’s no question in my mind that God intended to leave absolutely no room for long ages, evolution or death before sin.
It’s by no means the only place, but one key passage of scripture I keep going back to (because of how clear it is) would be 2 Peter 3. This passage is so clear that it utterly lays waste to allegorical or figurative interpretations of Genesis.