Man, the part that gets me is the 20 minutes you stood there. What were the buyers actually saying to him while they paid? Like, were they asking about his process or what inspired the piece, or was it just straight up "cool, here's my card"? Because that answer tells you everything about whether this is art or just a guy with a good hustle. If nobody even asked how it was made, they're not buying art, they're buying a vibe for their hallway. So did anyone in that crowd seem to care where the picture came from?

Embrace the loop, it’s character building for your knee.

Read an article once where a guy tested a bunch of old torque wrenches from garage sales and almost all of them were way off, some by like 20 percent. Yours clicking early sounds exactly like that, the spring inside just gets tired or gummed up after years of sitting around. A warped head is brutal too, that's not a quick fix at all. Good on you for testing them now, I always borrow my buddy's digital one since he keeps it calibrated. Cheap tools are fine for some stuff, but not for engine bolts that need to be exact.