1. If it really is not a lucid, but only dream about lucid, it indeed is a good sign. Means that your thoughts about lucids are getting into your dreams.

2. Knowing that you are dreaming while in a dream IS a lucid dream. It can be as foggy as the worst non-lucid, have 0 control, and it still can be a lucid.

3. People often think they don't need to do RCs, because sometimes they get lucid "out of the blue", without doing an RC in a dream.

Well it's not out of the blue. Although ofc it could be an incidental lucid. But when you are thinking about lucids and practicing, even if you don't do a physical RC in a dream and you get lucid just by thinking "I am lucid", it's never just out of the blue. It's because your daytime thinking about lucids. That's the practice. Physical RCs are just something that we attach the thought of "I am lucid" to. So, we can get lucid with or without doing a physical RC in a dream, when the important part - the thought "I am lucid" happens to appear. The RC is just a vehicle.

4. Sometimes it is hard to tell if it is a lucid or just a dream about being lucid. I had those before. It feels like we are about to figure something out, like we are about to say something that's on tip of the tongue. But it just doesn't click. We can see a sign saying "you are lucid" and it will not trigger lucidity. Because without the thought coming from us, it's just an empty word, just like an RC done incorrectly. It will transfer into our dreams without the "I am lucid" thought.

5. You don't have to remember the trigger that makes you think in your dream that you are lucid. People with some experience will tell you, that they just suddenly know they are lucid and they remember what they did last time. For me it's I just stand up from the bed and I'm in a dream, lucidly. Nothing in a dream triggered it. It came from my daytime thinking that I could be lucid at any moment, even right now.

6. What really helps to drive this idea home is when you believe you could be dreaming at any moment, every time you are doing RCs. When you RC during day and you can't breath through your pinched nose, you see only 5 normal fingers, your thum won't go through your palm... don't ever acknowledge it. If you do, then same will happen in your dream. Instead, visualize or just simply believe that it could all happen and that next time you RC, it will. Don't limit yourself that it will not happen in waking life. Because when you are dreaming, you believe it's waking life so RC would fail you. But if you believe they will happen next time, it doens't matter if you think you are asleep or awake, you will get lucid when you asleep.

Sorry for the ramble. Please ask what I didn't answer.