Yeah. . . plants are living creatures. They'll respond to their environments, and different people have different environments. So. I don't think there can be a lot of 100% hard-and-fast cultural rules. People come on these boards regularly claiming they can't grow orchids in [insert medium here], and then half a dozen people will say that's the only medium they use.

The plant seems to have stabilized without any further problems, no dehydration or other bad signs, and I'm cautiously hopeful that it'll start growing again in a few months. Cross fingers with me!