Improvement strategy

Hello...I love swimming b/c you can always work on your technique each time. I started enjoying swimming watching the sunset in the ocean, then I swam 5 minutes before sunset, then 10 minutes, next thing I'm swimming a mile. The ocean taught me bi-lateral and swimming strong. A year in, I took a deep look at my technique and realized the ocean forced me into a very good technique for someone with zero teaching. I feel like I haul serious a__ in the water and I've run into many swimmers in the ocean that cannot keep up with me. I just timed my mile swim and it is about 30 minutes so I looked that up and was surprised how freaking fast others are swimming a mile, wow! I can't imagine swimming a mile in under 25min but it looks like that can be achieved. I don't compete I just swim for fun, but love it. I do a 2 beat kick, and have recently read a 6 beat could speed me up. I feel like when I do a 6 beat I am swimming slower unless I really work the 6 beat kicks hard to which I get exhausted really fast. Even a casual 6 beat seems to be much more taxing on my breathing, abs, and hip flexors than the 2 beat. Can I get under 25min with a 2 beat? Should I start doing a 6 beat? Any suggestions to remove 5 minutes from my time? I'd really like to continue the 2 beat, but if the 6 beat removes minutes I will explore that. Thanks.