I present to you, the myths of meditation! 10 Myths About Meditation
What you were doing was most likely the boring/exhuasting/wrong kind, so I can understand why the aversion towards it. So basically, you re-found the correct type of meditation only lol

Not to offend but that is how dreams work for you. A lot of people find it takes more effort to be in expectator mode than simply command the dreams around them. Also the "This experience takes 30 minutes between sleep and awakening" seems to be false for me and many others. Not to mention it is well known that we dream in states other than deep sleep, it just may feel different. Then again you didn't give the full spectrum on the thread of these levels, so my knowledge is limited.

Also how would I classify? My lucid dreams don't collapse, yet I wouldn't say I am fully lucid in the waking state? This includes the regular/non-regular you described. Dunno about the other kind.