That fork looks much better than initial impressions. Nice work cleaning it up.

I am not a fan of rust converter since it will turn any rusty surface black/brown permanently. If you can paint over it it wouldn’t be too bad but I have a bike that the PO slathered the chrome with rust converter and I think it looks horrible.

Naval Jelly, Evaporust et al, clean, prime and paint. That’s my normal rejuvenation, FWIW.

Rust reformer is sometimes billed as a primer. I'm not an expert but I've read some of the cans. It seems to me that the reformers claim to fame is to seal up existing rust so you can paint over it. I'm of the opinion that getting rid of rust is better than covering it up.