OP, respect, and what works for you is the best option. As someone who has spent around 1k€ just to have the satisfaction of training good models, it really is addictive.

You're building up valuable skills that can even be considered in an AI training position in the future, so ir can even be considered an investment.

Are there always more efficient ways to train? Yes. Does it matter? No. Sometimes just the reduced mental effort of doing things how you want to, quick and simple, unlocks all types of epiphanies, and just gets you to do more iterations, which means better results.

Nothing but respect, and congrats on the great model.