Miami...I attend and live in the 'real-life' AA as do tomsteve, Gottalife etc...
Of course I understand if the way we describe AA is not the way you experienced it or remember it.
The more you talk about this the more some of your experiences make sense though. In general, no sponsor would accept you saying that you had already worked the steps...it's quite common actually for people to say "Well I've kind of already done steps 3 and 4" etc. There is more to the process, a sponsor would be short changing you if they let you get away with that.
One of the biggest stopping points in AA I think is fear and mistrust...asking a sponsor for help ( unconditionally) to understand and work the steps is in my opinion absolutely essential to working the steps. Some folks don't get past this because they can't find the right person, some folks can't swallow their pride enough to ask for help.
In my experience that is the biggest barrier to people experiencing the 'real AA' and then all the know is the surface one you see and hear about in meetings.
P