Man that feeling when something finally clicks is the best. I had the same thing happen with my sharpening years ago, some old guy at a flea market watched me grinding away forever and just said "you're making it harder than it needs to be." Took me a while to get what he meant but once I slowed down and let the burr do its thing everything got so much easier. Those old timers really do know their stuff. Glad it finally made sense for you.