In fact, the grounding situation seems to have become worse. I see two separate 230V-12V power supplies now, but their grounds are not connected. If built and wired this way, there will be fireworks.
Btw, I don't see the need for separate PSU's. Just get one that's sufficiently powerful and call it a day.
Since you're using an ESP32 now and that runs at 3.3V, I'd just get a 12V -> 3.3V buck step down regulator and power the ESP32 directly from that by connecting the Vout of the step down converter to the 3.3V pin on the ESP32. You'll bypass any linear regulator that's present 'under the hood' of the ESP32 module, which is probably a smart thing to do anyway since it'll be a tiny, underpowered regulator in the first place.
Nop, 74xx14 is a hex schmitt trigger. Keep in mind that it's also inverting; i.e. if you feed in a 'HIGH' signal, then the output goes 'LOW'. So you'll have to put two elements in the same package (there's 6 in one of those chips) in series so you get a non-inverting output.
Don't forget the 100nF decoupling cap on the Vcc pin of the chip. Also make sure to study the datasheet and follow the PCB design guidelines it contains. It won't be rocket science; implementing these is fairly straightforward.
If you don't want to layout your own custom PCB for this, I understand you can get ready-made smd pcb's for different chip footprints these days where you can solder the chip onto and some pins so the thing becomes breadboard compatible.
You did realize you bought some bare smd chips, did you...?