Every time I’ve gone to apply touch-up paint

I’ve dutifully marked off the piece with low-tack tape, applied a coat, waited, applied another coat, waited, applied clear coat, waited.

Then carefully removed the tape. 50% of the time, removing the tape took off all of the applied paint and hours of work went down the drain.

Today I put the tape on, went to town with the paint, immediately removed the tape, let it dry, repeated for each step, and everything worked beautifully.

Why did no one ever tell me you need to remove the tape immediately? Am I just an idiot?