I am pleased to hear you got a good lather with the Honeybee soaps. My experience is similar to yours in that I find they are super critical of the water mix, too much and you have slop too little and it is equally as poor for shaving.
At the time I had not long bought a Vulfix 18 in pure bristle from Paul and had been using that. I did not realise it at the time but I was using the perfect brush for the soap, an unbroken pure bristle that was face stabbingly new. Switching to a silvertip it was much harder but because I had a rough idea of where the soap could get to I made it only through persistence.
I would imagine if you got this soap and went at it like it was a bowl of Tabac then you would be very underwhelmed with the end result. I still use the Rose Honeybee soap I and still enjoy the challenge of using it. I find it does help if it is melted and poured into a cup, this allows a decent softening of the soap with water sitting on top for a few minutes before lathering which in turn allows me to get the right mix quicker.