Okay, no problem! Just wanted to make sure I understood the methodology.
So, I’m not sure the expected behavior when using a dataset and would have to look into that more but I can explain how to do this if you want to use code.
In the case below I have a repeater element that is just text in the repeaters. Let me know if something like this would work in your case. I am using a backend jsw function to get my data but you do not have to do this, it depends on the collection/privacy/permissions
$w.onReady(async function () {
//set your repeater to an empty array, it will not show up on page load bc it doesn't have any data
$w('#commentsRepeater').data = []
/get your data - in my case this is coming from a backend function I am awaiting
const results = await getData();
//set the repeater data to the results
$w('#commentsRepeater').data = results
//then in the onItemReady map the specific repeater elements to the itemData
$w('#commentsRepeater').onItemReady(($item, itemData,index) => {
$item("#commentsText").text = itemData.comment;
})