You’ve obviously thought long and hard about your own methodology and what works for you.
For me the process of looking something up and writing it down improves recall, thus I do not worry about efficiency of look up.
I listen to native French content, and a wide range of subjects and speakers, with as many registers as possible e.g. formal radio presenter, political speech, interviews with acknowledged experts, radio debates, podcasts by untrained presenters on diverse subjects such as gardening and SpaceX, people in the street with regional accents, young people, uneducated people and so on.
I believe that output is crucial, simply writing down phrases and speaking to oneself is beneficial. That of course is contrary to the ideas of Krashen.
Yes I am familiar with the Direct Method, thanks to @Obsttorte, and subsequent reading. According to Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, by Richards and Rodgers, it was developed in Boston in the late 1860’s by Sauveur, long before Krashen.
I think we have a problem with terminology. Comprehensible Input (CI) is a term introduced by Krashen as part of his theory of SLA. Thus when we refer to CI, we are implicitly referring to using his method, which states that we cannot learn explicitly or consciously, we must learn implicitly or subconsciously. You are using input, or partially comprehensible input, whichever term you prefer.
It seems that, at least in amateur linguistics, most people believe that Krashen invented learning assisted by large amounts of input, and that prior to Krashen everyone used rote learning and formal instruction.
The above all makes sense, it is why a week or two ago I started to use childrens picture books with my German studies. I’m sure what you describe has merit and I would love to have a personal tutor, but lack of funds prevents that, and my adverts for an unpaid German servant have received no replies.
Learning is of course a complex process that is enhanced by images, context, background sounds such as bird song, and emotional triggers such as excitement, fear and surprise, and even smell. We remember events from decades earlier that are associated with strong emotions, and forget what we were doing before and after. I still remember the phrase Tu t’es fait tout mouillé which was said to me one day by the secretary in the Départment de Chime at L’université de Montréal 35 years ago. Memory is odd. I also have a memory from over 50 years ago of walking along a road and being assailed by the smell of fresh tar from a boiler contraption standing on the pavement.
I find that association and focus help long term memory storage of words, for example by picturing the object or action referred to, or doing a Google search for images of the object or action.
Some people use mnemonics, and they can be effective.
I am getting much better at remembering words, perhaps because I am using better techniques of memorisation.