I live in southern Michigan and I have very sandy soil. Your solution
is expensive, requires a lot of work, and will make the acidity even
worse, but if you are willing to wait, one foot of compost will, over
time, fill the gaps between sand grains and vastly improve water
retention. It will also reduce to about two inches. If you build your
compost pile on top of the planting area and you build it well enough
(green/brown layered, start with material not too thick) it will take
two years. If you use 50% manure and 50% leaves (and in general if you
use manure in the pile, which sppeds composting) one year is all it
takes. Anyway, daisy thrives in poor, sandy, dry soil. Yarrow,
echinacea, and black eye Susan will also do well, as long as it is
sunny, and to a lesser extent many bulbs, asian lily, and of course
daylily.

My flowerbeds received one foot of wood chips in the beginning, 7-10
years ago, and now they only get some wood ash and a thin layer of
leaves every year. They still get dry, but only after the trees leaf
out because there are large hickory trees on their North side. If you
have tree roots in the planting area, they will do more damage than the
soil type.