That is a beautifully clean pool!
I see what you mean about the steps. They do appear to be fully enclosed except for that cubby hole in the back and the oval cutouts in the bottom. Depending on where they weights go I probably would cut several 2" holes placed all around. IMO, putting a floater with a tablet or stick in that cubby hole or inside the steps themselves would produce a too high chlorine concentration in a relatively confined area. I would worry about liner damage.
Do you have a
WallWhale brush? I bought mine at Leslie's some years ago. They really move an incredible amount of water with just some light brushing action. This might be just the tool you need to manually agitate the water behind and under your steps.
I know what you mean with the Black Dot. I used to really worry about "do I still see it or is it my imagination?" Anymore, I go by how stable my chlorine demand is. If the pool is having a hard time holding chlorine and I
think I can still see the dot, I add some CYA. There does come a time early on in the season when you
know the dot is gone. That happens right around 50 ppm CYA. I have so much splashout what with the big dogs swimming and dragging many gallons of water out each time they leave the pool that I refill nearly every other day and have a dilution thing going. Overdosing on CYA isn't a major concern for me.
Ted (username: waste) once wrote an excellent post about reading the pH. I wish I could find it again. He talked not so much about the numbers as about the color shades: bleached out yellow, rich yellow, yellow with orange, orange with pink, pink . . . something like that.
Taylor Technologies has some
instruction videos you might find useful.
As to step weights, give some thought to cutting large diameter PVC pipe to fit inside whatever space there is in your steps. You cap one end, fill the tube with QuickCrete and let it sit overnight, then cap the other end. Nothing to split open and spill into your pool.