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Totally agree. And it is surprising how "little" overfill will do this. In many installations the pressure switch and the LWCO (and maybe other safeties) will be wired all in series (there are other way to do this, but this is very common indeed). So — I'd say everything worked the way it was supposed to work.

just… sad

Unusual to see that on 1 pipe steam. Don't know how that would work. Several companies make pumping traps. Most of the larger trap manufacturers make pumping traps. $$$$.

Its only function is to pump condensate back to the boiler

Some pictures of the problematic vents ?

The actual water looks clean to me, the bottom 1/3 of the sight glass. The other junk upper 2/3 (probably rust) may have been there for a long time and accumulated over time. So when the boiler is boiling the water in the sight glass only deviates about 5mm or 0.2 inch and no other violent level changes.

The pigtail should be verified that it is not blocked.

Does the gauge ever move when " hissing very loudly and some are letting out so much steam that the room feels like a sauna "

Skim port if you choose to do a bit of skimming to see if there is any residual oil is still in the system.

Looks like a Hartford loop to me.

sediment would sink, i'm pretty sure that is oil in the sight glass which will cause surging which will throw liquid water in to the system which can get pushed out the vents. if the water bounces around while it is steaming we can tell you how to skim it to get rid of what i really think is oil.

the hissing may be bad or missing or severely undersized main vents

since it is cycling when you play with the pressuretrol settings I don't think the pigtail is clogged.