Thanks Dez, I just figured it out. I've put all my positioned subforms into flowed subforms so I can control the layout and still have repeatable subforms. Manipulating the layout is not as easy as I had expected, but at least now my form works.
Why can't I freely reposition objects within a flowed subform? Or when I try to add a new object to a flowed subform, I can just drag and drop - it places it next to another object and locks it in place. I can't seem to resize or move objects freely around. Do I have to change something with either ...