Should i spend MORE time on HOA stuff?

All that angst over the arch enemy and you're still standing - good for you. Told you the rest of the homeowners would have the final say, not five out of 500.

You said several conversations ago that you would step down as president - if that's what you did, it's time for you to stop thinking like one and let that person deal with stuff presidents deal with.
As immediate past president, you can be a resource, but resist the temptation to jump and do something because YOU would have done it that way if you were president.

Your tendency to act as the Lone Ranger has created some misunderstandings, hence the optics issue. If you're no longer an officer, it's best to let the current officers address this. Being transparent doesn't mean everyone will agree with you, but they have a right to know how the board arrived at its decision to do something or not. If people don't like it, they can run for a spot - when I was on the board, I would tell people "if you'd like to give this a go, let me know, and I'll gladly step down!" Odd that no one took me up on that offer.

There are other people on the board besides you, so you need to focus on what you can do and let everyone else decide what they will do and how. The main goal is that you follow your documents and keep up the communication. You can't be held responsible how people react when they hear the information, but you don't have a right to withhold it because you don't want to deal with the static.

I and others on this website have told you time and again that you teach people how to treat you. You made the decision to run again - you got what you wanted, so either stop whining or do your best and let God take care of the rest. Or quit - it wouldn't be the first time people realized what a shitshow they've gotten into and decided they don't have the time, stomach, skills, or all of the above (and a little more) to do the position justice. You owe it to your neighbors to try and do your best, but you also have a life outside the association. No one's going to ensure you get to live it, except you.

Then again I've concluded you secretly enjoy coming to this website to complain. Whatever lifts your skirts....

I've told you this before and I'm going to tell you this once more. Putting in 15-20 hours a week is not sustainable and you are nuts if you think future board members are going to do this. As a result as soon as you leave, things will go backwards and much of what you have done will be for nothing.

You have two choices. One, change the management contract to provide more hours and if the current PM is not capable of doing what you want then either change companies or have the current company give you a new PM. The second choice is for you to quit obsessing over every detail and accept that certain things will not get done and lower your standards.

You are making this much harder than it really is.

Communication by the Board allows owners, who care to know what is happening, to be given that information. Our treasurer has been assigned to write financial articles in our monthly newsletter and to ensure that all of our financials are located on our association website. Our Board secretary is also the co-chair of the landscape committee so she will write informational articles. I have assigned other tasks to the other Board members as I expect that the workload of the Board members is a shared responsibility.

Our annual meetings are very calm and last about 45 minutes. Board trust of the Board members by the owners is vital.

Alternatively, if you knew that nothing in the current situation would change, what would you do? Keep on truckin', create reasonable boundaries and enforce them, or nope on outta there? Whatever you do, YOU are the one who has to live with it.