The ear plugs (and the mask) have nothing to do with equalizing. They have to do with keeping your ears dry.
Putting on a wetsuit does not mean your body does not feel pressure.
Putting in ear plugs does not mean your ears do not feel pressure.
These things have nothing to do with equalizing. If you are having trouble equalizing, you might need to see a doctor who knows something about diving (which will be next to impossible to find, if my experience says anything).
Don't practice equalizing unless you are diving. (Of course, if you are not diving, what you are doing in not 'equalizing', it's "potentially hurting your ears by repeatedly overpressurizing them". If you "practice" (in quotes) 'equalizing' (in quotes) out of the water, you are making it less likely you will be able to actually do it in the water, because your ears will be irritated from being repeatedly over-pressurized.)
It's a small passage in your ears. If you wait to equalize, that small passage will close and you will lose the ability to force the air into your ear except with so much force that you risk hurting your eardrums. If you 'practice' out of the water, you will inflame that passage and make equalizing harder to do.
Diving is not sleeping on a feather bed. Everything is new and different. The change in pressure, from the surface of the ocean to 30 feet, is the same as the change in pressure from the surface of the earth to outer space. You never needed the skill of equalizing (or any skill involved with diving) before. Of course you cannot do it so well when you first start. The only place to practice the skills used in diving is when you are diving.
No skill you have learned at any point in your life prior to diving is of any use to you in diving. None. Everything is different. If other people seem to have no problems doing things like equalizing, don't worry about it. It's not a competition. Some people tan well, other people pick up new diving skills faster.
If you have never ever spent time in the water before, the sensation of water in your ears may feel strange. So might having to breathe through a regulator. So might being weightless. Experience will get you used to the changes.
