Frank Klausz nailed it with that comparison.

Wait you actually weigh the water for pasta salt

Methane is less harmful than people think for small scale piles though. A properly managed cold pile still produces some methane but it's nothing compared to what happens in a landfill where they're compacting tons of material. I leave mine alone for months at a time and the worms do all the work. Your neighbor isn't wrong about turning it helping but you weren't making the problem worse on any meaningful scale.

Bought a "pro grade" hard drive cloner once that was just ddrescue with a $60 sticker slapped on it. Made me feel real smart when I realized I could've done it for free and probably gotten better results.

Oh man, that's such a bummer! I had the exact same thing happen with my recordings for like three months before I realized my levels were peaking the whole time.