New to honing - and confused!
The only thing I can add is that you might want to play around with MMs. Some seem to leave ink that peeks off like a tarp (so to speak). Sharpie brand work well and applies a stain to the edge rather than something more like a layer of paint.
I hope that makes sense.
Any more, I just use a 10x lens and I know what the s watch pattern of my stone looks like...so I watch how those scratches overtake the edge.
One final morsel I will share...and this might be a bit advanced...but make all your strokes the same way, then take a different stroke to see where your scratches are (example: if you are using x strokes with the heel forward you will leave angled scratches...so the do a couple straight strokes with heel straight or even trailing if you don't have a shoulder and you should see where your stones are working).
New to honing - and confused!
It's this type of trial and error that leads to learning.
That being said I'm sorry that it didn't work out for you this time. don't feel bad about it. It's just part of the hobby.
Michael