Just bought a pizza steel and I'm lovin' it!

I've grown tired of replacing a broken stone every few months, so I decided to see what the fuss is all about over what is, essentially, a 14x16x1/4" piece of steel plate (I don't want to give a brand name because I don't want to break any rules and I can't imagine the brand makes a meaningful difference with such a low-tech product).  Virtually all of the articles and reviews I've read say it's superior to a stone in more ways than just durability - greater heat conductivity, for one.

I preheated the oven at 550F for about an hour with the steel on the second rack from the top.  The dough was nothing special - bread flour, water, salt, and yeast.  About 55% hydration.  After a normal overnight fermentation and blah, blah, blah, I patted it into a 10" disc (actually, 4), about 1/4" thick, added some simple, traditional toppings and slid it onto the stone.  Wow!  Within 15 seconds, the edges ballooned to 1.5 to 2"!  The pie was done in just over 5 minutes.  Crisp, both top and bottom, light, almost airy interior with some nice big holes.  "Perfect" is a subjective term, but this one fit my definition perfectly.  I've never made or even been served a more enjoyable crust!  Though I'm willing to acknowledge that the fact that I made it may well have contributed to that perception.  The 4 pies were baked back to back with no discernible difference between #1 and #4, though I'm sure there's a limit.  I thought about getting a 1/2" steel, but it seems that would have been unnecessary in my case.

Next was bread.  Again, nothing special about the dough.  As above, but with a bit of sugar, oil, diastatic malt powder, and Honeyville Dough Conditioner (don't judge me).  45% hydration.  Baked on the steel, the bottom crust was a bit more firm than I like, but the loaf, itself, was fine - nothing unusual about it.  No problem, I bought it for pizza, not bread.

Next loaf, I didn't feel like removing the steel (it's kinda heavy and there's really no good place to store it around here), so I left it in the oven on the bottom rack.  I put the bread on a parchment lined cookie sheet like I've been doing since I lost the last stone, and baked it as normal - 375F for about 20 minutes on the shelf immediately above the steel.  The oven spring was like nothing I've seen before in my oven!  The crust was wonderful, the crumb was chewy and fluffy at the same time.  Easily, one of the best breads I've baked.  The beautiful part was that that next loaf came out exactly the same.  I can't help but think the steel is making all the difference, perhaps simply by keeping more heat inside the oven when I open it to put the bread in, but that's just a theory.

Is it plausible that this 15 lb heat sink truly made such a huge difference in my bread or did lightning simply strike twice in a row?  (I'm getting better, but I still struggle a bit with consistency)  That I made two like this is epic!

FWIW, Naan is also a breeze with this steel.  Pita is next on my hit list.  Any other suggestions?