Everyone have different approach, and I like to hear about plans about mining
It's a good plan you have, and not different than mine
I'm very close to ROI my cards, and I always consider to sell the cards before any crash, I learned this in 2017-2018 and I'm using now, it's a way to reduce the risks and enjoy both ways of profit
And I do this because I have 0.15 USD electricity cost, maybe with less than 0.10 cents I would try another plan
I don't know about the timing, maybe you sold to early, maybe not, but attention to your plan to buy your rig after a crash, why would you buy again if mining won't be profitable in a bear market?
If $1000 can get you just two pieces of graphics cards in the bull season then there's a possibility that $1000 can get you four graphics card in bear market so I believe that this will be increase your reward, what OP did makes sense especially if they have free electricity or solar energy