Just stained the deck after 3 years of neglect.

Bought a 5-gallon pail of Olympic Honey Gold toner stain.

The directions say the coverage is 250 to 350 square feet per gallon
for "smooth" wood, and 150 to 250 square feet per gallon for "rough"
wood. I would say my surface was mostly smooth with a few rough spots.

I applied the stain on a cool (60 degrees) sunny breezy day; the wood
was neither warm not cold to the touch. The wood was so thirsty I
wound up using 3 gallons to cover 400 square feet (400/3 = 133 square
feet per gallon). There were no "puddles" and within 15 minutes the
wood was dry to the touch. There are no "shiny" areas indicating an
excess of unabsorbed stain on the surface. It looks great

But my question is this: When applying stain, should you pace yourself
so that you achieve the coverage specified on the label, OR should
you just let the wood tell you how much it wants, even that means
putting down twice as much stain as the label specifies?

Is there any harm in using more stain than the label indicates, or does
it actually give better protection? Or is it just a waste of money to
use more stain than specified?