So I came across this recipe, and was curious why the author chose to do "light hand kneading" followed by slap and folds and finally stretch and folds, as opposed to just properly kneading the dough. It doesn't look too wet to actually just knead it.
Also willing to accept an explanation that this doesn't make any sense :)
I dont think so. Well maybe if your ways works then its the right way. As a guy who is too lazy to hand knead and if you just want make croissants without all the fuss here's another method of preparing the dough
500g bread flour. (I use king arthur but whatever is available as a strong bread flour like KA)
50g granulated sugar
100g unsalted butter
10g salt
250g water
14g instant yeast
Combine everything. Mix on slow 4 mins. Mix on high 4 mins. Evaluate your dough. If it tears a little when forming a ball mix on high about another minute or until it's really smooth when you form a ball.
Ferment at RT about 1 hour or until about double in size.
Degas and form a slab the refrigerate in cling wrap overnight.
As a suggestion a really good butter for lamination is 'president' butter from france. It's very plastic and can tolerate a little higher temps than some of the other euro butters. If you're in usa many people suggest 'plugras' which is a european 'style' butter I think this is a little hard and and brittle.
This dough above should be ideal for laminating ;)