Regarding being 'unwilling to face the music', is it possible that you were only able to perform this refactor due to all the 'thrashing' that came before you? Is it possible that the majority of commits leading up to your refactor were dealing with unforeseen complexities and addressing real bug fixes that you were able to conveniently take in and synthesize all at once?
Refactoring too soon, before understanding the entire system (and all the possible changes/additions/issues that could arise) is probably worse (time-wise) than thrashing for a bit.
Refactoring too soon, before understanding the entire system (and all the possible changes/additions/issues that could arise) is probably worse (time-wise) than thrashing for a bit.