No recovery on finastride after 7.5 months

Hi guys. A bit of background - noticed a bit of crown thinning and recession back in summer 2023. So I hopped on minoxidil 2.5 mg in September. Went through a crazy shed but by January/Feb 2024 had a decent (not full) recovery - probably just above baseline. Then I noticed short hairs shedding again in July/aug. These hair were smaller than others in length, a bit thinner, but the root was nearly always thicker than the tip. Then mid November I jumped down finastride 0.5mg. didn't really have an aggressive shed but definitely shed more than expected. The shed didn't really stop (maybe gotten a bit less over the past couple months). It's been about 7.5 months of finastride and haven't seen a recovery yet. I bumped it up to 1mg about a month and a half ago. Hair (especially the crown) is definitely below baseline of before finastride. It doesn't seem to be getting any better. I know people say to wait 1 yr, but surely I should've seen some recovery/thickening of hair by now. Still in the shower I lose the smaller hair that are thicker at the root than the tip, but no signs of any recovery. The smaller hair probably makes up about 70-80 percent of the hair I lose in the shower. Is seeing those hair a good thing? Even when I see no difference? They are about 2.5/3 inches in length and about 2/3 of the thickeness of my normal hair. Can I expect them to get like my normal hair? When can I expect my crown to start thickening up? What's the reason for seeing these smaller hair? Any advice/ similar experience highly appreciated. Thank you!!