Cold and lumpy" is some harsh feedback from a customer. But if the joint works and passes a pull test, maybe it's fine. Not every joint needs to look like a textbook photo. Sometimes going back to basics is overkill.
Give this to @johnb95 too cause I feel like my cold and lumpy joints are basically modern art at this point. My dad used to say if it holds and doesn't crack, you're doing something right even if it looks like a mess. But honestly that customer's comment got under my skin too, so I redid a whole batch just to prove something to myself. Now my joints look prettier but they still pass the same pull test, so maybe overthinking it was the real lesson here. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself and remember nobody's checking your work under a microscope, especially not in Spokane.