Had an old rigger tell me the same thing about calling the path before the load moves instead of while it's going. Once I started doing that, the operator knew where the hook was headed and the whole pick stopped jerking around. That one change made my signals way cleaner than anything I'd been doing before.

Did you see that barber on YouTube say the same thing?

That $140 pad stings because pads are the ONE thing where the price gap actually shows up on your hips. I went through three cheap ones before I figured out the R value number on the box matters way more than the thickness or the brand name. Cold Spring sits up around 8,000 feet and those nights get into the 30s even in summer, so a 3 season pad rated lower than R-4 will feel like sleeping on concrete no matter how much you spent. My guess is you didn't overpay for gear, you just bought the wrong pad for that spot's overnight temps.