I still put all my beers in “secondary” or settling carboy after primary is done. So I know what you mean. I always used liquid yeast. This might be the second time in 23 or 24 years of brewing I used dry yeast for beer. I’m excited to see the results.One of these days I’d like to try the “sprinkle on top” procedure with no O2. The thing is, brewing is this step by step refining of processes.
We’ve been told to “oxygenate well” for so long it somehow goes against convention. It’s hard to make yourself to do it - takes quite a bit of effort to produce a batch of beer. You think about those other past batches you suffered through (and drank anyway!)
If that batch came out weird, I’d be kicking myself for quite a while for not pulling out the O2 tank and carbonation stone setup.