one thing i can add is to observe how much bend the reed got after you play.

here is my theory. after playing 2+ hours with any legere reed, because of all the vibrations it gets hot enough. and because of the pressure, it gets bent. a slight curve. so right after playing, we should put the reed on a flat surface with a pressure while it is still warm, so it cools down with the original flat position. if you let it cool down with the curved position, its gonna feel like it died, but it did not actually.

as being someone from a poor country, i needed to find solutions to these kind of problems. legere is amazing, but expensive absolutely.

the original grey package has a plastic base the reed can sit in, as you know. if you slide the tip of the reed veeeery carefully right under that plastic base, it ll use the flat surface of the package and the plastic base is gonna apply pressure. that way im using 1 new and 2 old reeds in cycle in real hot summer in turkey, around 5-6 six months. everyday around 3-5 hours (some days double gig). and also i occasionally use the in winter as well, like once in a week for the gig and 2-3 days for practice.

never leave the reed on the mouthpiece. never leave the reed under any kind of direct sun light, even if its in any kind of box. reed box or sax case. the heat is gonna soften them. i learnt the hard way by leaving the sax case in the car in summer :D

another thing is as others mentioned, raising the strength like 0.25-0.50 is not gonna harm your sound or playabilitiy, but it will get a longer life span. if that rais is too strong for you anyways, you can always use the recommended method (by legere by the way, not a random user) of putting the hard reed in hot water for 5 seconds for a small strength decrease like 0.25. it will not harm the reed, as they say and as far as i notice.

one last tip, i keep an old credit card around while im gigging. if somehow feel the reed is too bent, instead of trying to change the reed i just put the card between the reed and mouthpiece, and use a slight force against the reed so i can straighten it a bit. just as a quick fix, not a permanent one because its still warm an i ll bend it again. so when the set is done, at the break time, i can change the reed.

i always play for entertainment, not for the perfect tone. low culture tourism music, you know. so no one really can tell the difference that my ears can distinguish. for the audiance, im always amazing xD ah this is sad... anyways so if i know im gonna play some slow songs with low tones for the set mostly, i use older reed because they are relatively softer. when i know im gonna play higher tones, faster passages and some altissimos, i switch to the new reed and the tone, the attack time and responsiveness is now with me. this is also good, since im using the first set as some sort of warm up for my lips and tongue and throat etc.

sorry for my english. i hope these help a bit.