To be honest, I don't trust any of the estimates. I've never had them be close for me.
I'm happy that everything eventually came back for you. Sounds like you're having a ton of "fun".
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row. First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code: ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.