Cool, IK. Since you've pm'd I hate to come in being a back seat driver
I think the problem is acclimation vs. warmup. The need to go at it with weights closer to your target is one of acclimation. For that reason if you compare what your were doing before to what you did this time; this time was better. But you don't need more than one or two reps for acclimation whereas the "warmup" portions "generally" should be kept further away.
If you find you need more "acclimations", for instance, finding the target weight 'shocks' you (which is bad psychologically AND physiologically) or for whatever reason you can simply add more one reppers with more increments. And keep in mind that for the most part all of this is about optimal vs. suboptimal rather than about right vs. wrong.