Inspite of its lenght I enjoyed looking for the solution, here. I had all sorts of setups, one of them reached manti's record (1081). I gave it two more tries, after that, cause I felt it was not optimal, and I found 1077. Not sure if that's optimal, either, but I'll leave it there, atm.
EDIT (7 months later - 5th March, 2024): I'm now stuck at 1033 and still don't know what Diablillo did to this level. Some magic, no doubt! :))
Will keep looking!
In case anyone is interested in claiming the lowest step count: I think there is at least another cut that saves two steps.
I'll have to resume the level another day, so enjoy looking for it.
