This is driving me crazy… I have 2 objects like this:
And all I want to do is to cut out the selected object (object1) from the other object (object2). Both are meshes.
So I’m doing:
And against my expectations, the result is just object1:
What am I doing wrong? I’m using Blender 4.2
Boolean.blend (1.0 MB)
The geometry of your 2 objects is not ideal.
I’ve redone them quickly to give you an idea:
Boolean-picto.blend (934.2 KB)
That doesn’t improve the geometry though.
Well… applying it does the usual boolean… “thingies”…
so someone may have to clean this for further use. But the initial request was to save the OP from madness ??
Very often, boolean thingies come from poorly prepared geometry.
Yepp… that’s also why very often some construction of the wanted result might be even better than a boolean because the afterwork might be more than the preperation… 
