Hello Lewis. Those are excellent observations. And as I was reading your post I was goin 'yep, been there done that, yep, been there done that, etc'.
I do the same thing as a rule, that is get enough pieces to do at one time. Though I do not season anything that I am not going to cook with. It takes too long to season everything like that.
I warm them up in the oven after I scrub them clean and then put mineral oil on them. It looks good and protects the piece.
Now if you want to put three coats of seasoing on a piece it will look somewhat darker, than vs the mineral oil. But the difference is not enough to worry about.
And then if I want to start using a piece that I have put the mineral oil on, all I have to do is scrub it with some Dawn, that strips it naked, and then I can season as I wish.
But if you are cooking with cast iron I would say a dozen pieces are all you need to cook anything. So why season more than you need.
Now about that post lye bath. Thats an excellent idea. I do the same thing myself. And when I get that container full enough to suit me I start scrubbing them up and puttin them in the oven, put one in, take one, and so forth. It works pretty good.
And as far as strength, it really does not matter, and even if your lye bath gets all dirty and nasty, that means its doing its job.
Even after you electro a piece and you don't want to start working on it, throw it in the lye bath. In fact I put everything in the lye bath first. If its carboned up it will take off the carbon. If its rusty the lye will arrest the rust, and keep it from going further. Thats the way I do it anyway. FWIW
I know a lot of folks talk about seasoning everything and thats fine. I don't have the time, nor the desire, nor the need to do all that seasoning.