I did love that level. I had big fun here. Something I understood at start combined with logic were the keys for me. Had a 2 off, but as there were little alternatives allowing a cut, 2 more tries were enough to solve it.
Cool construction with lots more to explore! Newer players, this may be the easiest PhD solve you can get - don't be shied away by the high stepcount. The actual optimization is quite straightforward, although it does require some sneaky observations.
