What helped me most with AquaCoat is to use small amounts and try to leave it all on the body. I just keep rubbing it in to small areas until it looks flat. I don't think you can eliminate pull, it "tints up" a bit...but you can at least rub it back in ;-) Like you, I also discovered that, except in very curved areas, that a hotel card key works about as well as anything to apply it.

The other advantage to using small amounts and trying to leave it all on the body is that you use less of it. It was expensive to buy, but I have done maybe 6 guitars and have still not gone through my original pint--so figuring that way it's not much more expensive than any other decent filler--at least not in North America.