There’s a reason this was a Master’s stone 🙂
Sounds like you did good. As long as you make the meets, there’s no shame in using the cheater or making minor adjustments to the angle, which is what you’re calling cheating front to back.
This is what’s called an “apex crown”, by the way. It’s not really a table. Angles that low can be very tricky to cut.
Some years ago Glenn Klein waged a campaign to eliminate the words “cheater” and “cheating”. You might find this interesting:
Get Rid of Cheater