First time stainer needing some advice

I have around 3,000 square feet of deck to deal with. I replaced several horizontal boards that were beyond repair. I cleaned the entire thing with sodium percarbonate, then brightened with something I purchased that had Oxalic Acid in it. I am using TWP Honeytone stain (that's what the previous owner used). I sprayed the pergola and it turned out fine. One part of the pergola had never had any stain on it at all.

I tested a couple other areas before it got dark to see how they would look. I stained 5 runs of the horizontal boards and it is much darker than I was hoping for. I then stained one section of the fence and it made it a little darker than it was before. I did 2 small sections of the railing and it looks decent.

Knowing that I have several new boards to deal with in a few months when they have time to dry out, what would you suggest I do for this deck?

I have enough TWP to do the deck, but I wasn't real happy with how dark it made the horizontal surface. I hate to spend so much time and money and not be happy with the finished product. I purchased a pittsburg deck brightener that I was going to try this morning to see if I can get the boards to brighten a little, making the TWP be less dark. I was going to test a section to see if it actually works to brighten up the wood. I don't think the other product I used did much to brighten.

Would I be better off to go with a solid stain? I've read they are harder to maintain and can be slick near a pool.

I've literally never stained a deck in my life, so I just don't know exactly what I am doing. I may just have to high of expectations of what the finished product can look like with a 10 year old deck.

Thank you for your time!