The first hive I think you did well in reducing it to one box given the limited amount of brood. You can all was ad a box but getting the queen through winter is becoming is not is our main concern.

You made the comment about the fatness of the frame of honey being drawn out. You will likely find that the next frame , towards the nest is a partially drawn comb with the bulging face of the first frame filling the space in the.
Depending on the nest size I will useful turn it around to encourage the facing frame to drawn out properly. They will also move some it if needed to the edges of the brood nest.

Bulging comb is great in the honey box putting 8 frames so they all get bulgy and hold significant ly more honey in the box. Less frames to extract .

In the brood nest it vastly complicates the precess of helping the bees develop a thriving nest.

The nest is a vertical foot ball or tear drop falling up. Each frame is a double sided slice through the hive. When you examine it you want to see a ring of honey up each side of the cluster. On top of the cluster That is the outer sphere the next is pollen and then brood.

With our on again nectar flows I feed all hives drawing comb. It takes the takes the bees a bit to restart and they are not likely to pick up were they left off.

Placement of foundation and empty frames in your hive to encourage drawing what you need. I it is brood intended I like to place then in the brood nest. The brood on both sides of the frame will encourage them to copy it. I also mark the date I put in a hive. Helps me to determining how old the comb.
As I am a follower of letting the bees draw their own come in the nest are I will insert an empty frame there. Foundation I use for honey areas only. Mostly because if you chose to extract it. It will survive the process.

We aim our hives to having the requirements to make it through the winter. I will be expanding on this in a wintering hive video workshop.