[Underwhelp]

I figured out the issue (s) ,
First is that Initial Preparations does not always give any CP back. Its random if it procs prior to it's removal with the Reflect action.
Second , for some reason my Genius trait is not kicking in 100% of the time... makes no sense as I am a Specialist and should be 100% on step 2. So I tracked my MP remaining, crafting a pile of new 2 Star fibers
You can see that on attempt #2 in the data i posted below, the genius nor anything proc from Initial Preparation occurred... its so odd. I also did many more attempts yet same situation sometimes occurred
So I guess primary reason for my failures, is a stupid glitch in my character. Guess I am not a worthy Genius

   
  
                                 #1   #2
PRECRAFTING CP    539  539
-------------------------------------
Initial Preparations  489  489 
Comfort Zone          442  423
Inner Quiet               432  413
...
...
...
and so on