Mike,
I only have 3 years into the honing & have never used a paste/powder/Crox, but I have used the PHIG quite a bit on about 8 different razors, good to great shaves were achieved. The PHIG is a slow finisher. There are some threads attached to this page, read as much as you can, to get as much as you can, out of the PHIG.
Chinese Guangxi Hones - Straight Razor Place Wiki

My finisher now is a coticle. It's a natural stone, so there is a for sure a slight difference in all , from stone to stone. There is for sure a learning curve with the coticle. Different steels have required me to stretch my routine to sometimes 40+ strokes, different pressure; while some of my razors have beeen finished on the coticle with as little as 20 strokes with the razors weight only.

Enjoy the honing the razor & don't see it as a task that must be accomplished. To me the coticle is a new journey with each razor.