Doesn't matter if you call it "recovery" or not. It is better than it was.
Less is definitely more.
I would agree that tapering is not always the best choice of strategies and is simply the beast hanging on for dear life. But it takes some people more time on the mat before they are able to wrestle control back from the beast. Once they are back on top and remember what that feels like, it becomes easy. It was that flip that did it for me. After that, applying a perpetual arm bar takes almost no effort. Prior to that for me, there was a bit of round and round and sweat and fancy footwork.
Time to make some lemonade. What else can one do?