Haha, part of the solution! I like that thought.
WRT stropping, during Kezuroukai it became apparent that stropping my blade was causing me a disservice and I ditched the approach. I like stropping for knives, and double bevel tools, or gouges.
Stropping is a double edged sword, on blades where you cannot quite get the wire edge off, or if you aren't quite removing the wire edge for some reason, it will be a dramatic improvement as the strop will no doubt remove the wire edge. If you are already removing the wire edge, then there is no improvement to be made and in my experience the quality of the cut slightly declined when stropping.
The best thing (IMO) you can do is learn to see an edge that continues to show wear, and learn to feel for a wire edge, or burr and to know when it is removed. You can use magnification for this, but the most practical approach is to train your hands to feel for the edge.
The number one culprit for retaining a wire edge is likely not grinding back far enough when refreshing the edge, remove the wear completely with your rough stones before progressing through the grit. I like to work the back very lightly after each grit on the bevel to ensure that I've removed edge, with each new grit it is reformed and removed again.
The result is a very long lasting edge, partially because it is without marks from the previous grit (coarseness) and partially because it is completely repaired of previous wear. A true fresh start, so to speak.
Once you have a basic regimen of sharpening stones, improvement of process or chasing ideal in process are going to create better and longer lasting edges than continuously purchasing additional stones.