Three years? Man, that's a long time to be running bad lube without realizing it. I used a "ceramic infused" wet lube for about eight months before I clued in, and even that felt like a waste once I saw the metal shavings in the rag. I can't imagine finding out after three years - that cassette must have been totally thrashed. Glad you caught it, though.

That kind of pain usually means you care about getting better.

Keep the count if it makes you happy, but 50 is actually closer to half the known types out there lol.

Barrier or not, my face still looked like a tomato

Come on man you probably just didn't read the instructions or didn't let the planks acclimate long enough, that's the number one reason click-lock fails. Every time I hear someone complain about a bad batch it turns out they were trying to install in a humid garage or they skipped the tapping block altogether. Three broken tongues in a row sounds like user error way more than a warehouse full of defective flooring.