Extremely good post. I have made the mistake (more than once, so clearly I take a long time to learn) of trying to get rid of every hair while shaving. I feel like with all the time spent prepping, heating, hydrating, lathering, etc. that I should be able to be BBS before applying my aftershave... This leads to attacking trouble areas over and over with the result being a nice ugly, painful case of razor burn.

This morning I just did a nice leisurely WTG, XTG shave with my DE razor and it was the most pleasurable shave I have had since starting this wet shaving hobby. I didn't come out BBS but I felt very refreshed, smelled great, not a single nick, cut, scrape or weeper. I think it may have been because I am testing the blade (Merkur) to see how many shaves I can get out of it (this was the 5th) and was focusing on using zero pressure. I had reggae music playing and it was a very zen experience to not worry about every last hair.

OP, you're totally correct that the 'true shave' doesn't reveal itself until later on, when the skin has relaxed back to normal. No reason to try to force BBS.