I think the secondary POI techniques are working because you care less about the outcome and you're making it a fun experiment. If it works that's great and if it doesn't who cares? That's the way to manifest ALL things! Lighthearted, fun, no sweat, no judgment, no negativity. :-)
Out of curiosity (and absolutely no judgement) I was wondering how many people have you used the technique on? Myself personally I've been using the technique on multiple people. I have my main/primary POI whom I've been working on since I found out about the technique (almost a year ago) and have had some results here and there. I also have my 'secondary' POI(s) who I do sessions on maybe 1-2 times a week, these are usually my at-the-time celeb crushes/favorite musicians (I'm very much into bandmembers, in fact my main POI is one!) who live on the other side of the country/world. I've actually had more success with my secondary POI's then my main one (most likely from less resistance as my expectations are lowered at lot more)
One of them I did a few sessions on before going to his gig/meeting his band and he was very resistant (he went out of his way to ignore me)
Another one again I did sessions before going to his gig and he seemed really freaked out when I bumped into him outside the venue. When I met him after the show he was a lot more friendlier to me then he was to any of the other fans.
And my most recent one accepted my friend request on facebook, after I sent him a message, that night during a PW session I told him to read and reply to my message. So far he has read it.
I'm going to a music festival next year where two of my secondary POI's bands are playing so I'm interested to see what results I get!