That's a seriously nice bike. It's good to see fellow drop bar 29er riders.

Looks to me you're doing much of what is called for. The big question is how your cadence is climbing. I say this as someone who is also guilty of mashing and rough on chainrings(but I'm working on it). I assume this has more of a bearing on wear of chainrings than even lubrication. If you think you're bad, I've even bent a chainring this way.

Steel rings are certainly a good idea in this application. Regarding 1x, and this is conjecture on my part, I imagine that it's a pricier proposition. You may find similar wear but be paying more for parts but more important is having the gearing that allows you to climb with less torque on those rings.