I'd hold off on the burnishing for now. If your scratches are relatively small and in the direction of honing, it should still cut finely.

I've had the best luck with those boxes in terms of cnats - it suggests that the stone originated from woodwell tool (mujingfang) and all of the ones I've gotten will not release particles without you wanting to. That's important.

If a cnat gets a little slow, it's fine to use a little pressure on it like you would an ark, it won't hurt an edge. A little means that you're mindful not to flex the razor and alter geometry, but you don't have to let the weight of the razor go back and forth on those stones 500 times.

For anyone else who gets one of the 8x3 stones, if one of the sides is a little high, you can just hit it with a diamond hone until you have a workable patch. If the last 1/2 inch of the edges is low in some areas, it's not a big deal, the stone will finish the same.