It would seem to me, esp as not seeing a pic of after the layer was added and lightly honed on the finisher a bit, and before the progression of CroOx on paddle and strop are done, that Tim is simply providing a good path for the final pasted strop progression to do it's duty without overdoing anything. I have done this in the past, particularly on problem steels. It works quite well.
Thanks for posting this, Tim, and clarifying what is actually happening!
Tom