Did you notice any difference on hot days though? I did the damp trowel thing for a while and it works great in normal weather, but once it got up past 90 the water would dry off the blade before I even got two passes in. What helped me was keeping two trowels going, one sitting in the bucket while I use the other, so the blade stays damp longer. The other thing is watch how much water drips into your mortar, because a sopping wet trowel can push the mix around and mess with your color. A quick dip and a shake off is the sweet spot like you said. If the mortar is really sticky you can also try a light rub of dish soap on the blade, just a tiny bit, it does the same thing but lasts longer than water.