Reflection is great thing. Like you, I also recently cut out some "gamey" bits on dates because I thought those were causing failure.
I realised later there were a few fundamentals I had dropped off over the last year or two through developing bad habits.
I recently added the more timed kino/routines/escalation back in and it is fireworks.
The key is timing and understanding what stage you are at in the seduction.

Is being called a player a common theme for you? If that is how you are perceived, how do you use it to your advantage?