Great post and honest post, I still use wheels for my mice and asf because a: i have a small number of animals and b: I use plastic wheels that do not squeak because i use some bike oil to make them go smooth (neither my mice, nor the asf chew on them)
But I have always used a feeding regime like you, even on my pet rats, who are fed every 3-5 days, because they hide most of the food anyways and eat it later. I used to throw away huge amounts of expensive rodent diet on every cleaning day, hidden under the bedding. And since my two rats are touching their second birthday and never had any health issues and have a good shape I guess I am doing good.