Same thing happened to me with a cheap toner that saved my butt on a cat5 pull.

Right? Kinda like how the "toughest looking" option often fails first in real life.

That old timer probably saved you a ton of headache. String lines are great for straight runs but they slow you down big time on longer fences. I started eyeballing posts after watching a crew do it fast on a job site. Just take your time marking the corners first and the rest falls into place. You gotta trust yourself a little but it works out fine.

Had the same problem with mine in the Smokies, rainfly didn't help.

Flip your basket halfway through - thats the trick nobody told me about. I do mine in two batches like you but instead of pulling them all at once I shake the basket around at the 5 minute mark. This gets the steam out and lets the bottom fries get crispy too. The bag instructions never mention this but it makes a HUGE difference for frozen stuff like fries or onion rings.