I'm asking for folks to slog through this and help me with forming my 'this is how adeniums work' internal monologue. Thank you!

So, I got my first grafted adenium in May 2018. I potted it in a very well drained custom mix. It leafed out, but didn't do much that summer. I moved it into a cold (relatively) laundry room for winter, where it did nothing till February and started releafing. I moved it outside in April 2019 again. My first flower was August of 2019 as I recall. It was my only flower, the other buds in the cluster fell off. Leaves were always a bit yellowish, not nearly as profuse as they are this winter, and new growth was very slow.

Admittedly this was the wettest summer I remember, I don't think I added any additional liquid to the soil more than 2-3 times all summer.

Ok, so in late October, I moved it back in (and bought it a brother). This time I moved it into a sunny south facing window in my bedroom where it never gets below 68 and often sun-warmed roots in it's pot. In my two waterings since I brought it inside, I have provided a weak feed.

A quite fast rate of growth has occurred since the leaves fell in November (I left it out just a little bit cooler than it would have liked, I brought it when temps hit 40 for the first time at night...no harm but leaf loss) I have bloom clusters on about every growth on the older plant. There are lovely leaves on the new one, but it hasn't quite graced me with a but, but I expect one every day. Oh, I potted the new one in a more moisture retentive soil, probably appropriate to a fast growing easy cactus like echinopsis. The older pot is almost pure mineral with little retention due to rot worries from reading about other people's problems.

It seems to me to be doing much better on the windowsill than outside. The leaves definitely look so much happier and bloom, oh my.

So, I'd love to have people's opinion on whether it's the strict watering policy (versus almost daily drenches Nature gave it last summer) or the fact that I finally was told that they prefer heavy feeding (and I'm still giving light, but that's better than NO) is the reason I'm seeing growth and bloom success? I'm still in the 'figuring' adeniums out phase, but I'm definitely seeing progress. For me, they're not hard to get to live at all (having had no issues there). Flowering has been another issue, but it seems to be progressing too.

I've read that I shouldn't treat it as a succulent when in active growth as it will respond greatly to heat, light, water, fertilizer intensity and great growth will occur. Thoughts on that too?