Newbie here - so forgive the question if it's a dumb one.

New gravel bike with GRX400 group. Mavic allroad wheels. 12x100 front TA.

Rotor was rubbing on one side (drive side). I loosened the brake caliper a bit, re-centred and pulled the brake, tightened, still rubbed. Next I took off the wheel, pushed the pistons back (shouldn't have been the cause with a new bike?, but just in case), and when I was tightening the TA things lined up perfectly, spun the wheel afterwards and no more rub. I tried that again, had the issue, and then again and it was fine. I realized that depending on how I hold/support the wheel (bike on a stand) when inserting and tightening the TA I can accidentally shift it a bit to one side, causing it to go slightly off centre. Never had this happen before with other bikes with disc brakes, but I don't have much experience with them.

In future I will simply check that the rotor is between the pads when putting the wheel back on and tightening the TA, but I was wondering if this means there is a bit of play in the thru axles with this bike (front at least)? After I've tightened it there is no slop and it seems fine (been out a number of times and it rides fine). Or is this common with most thru axle bikes and you just learn by trial and error, as I did?

Thanks!