Ok so you admit that the fluid was so bad that you had to flush it four times to make it clean, and that replacing the fluid helped with the hard shifting. That directly supports my argument.

I'm not moving any goalposts. You're hinging on the irrelevant technicality that you weren't the one that neglected the ATF maintenance, but instead the previous owner. I couldn't care less about who shares the blame. The facts are that the fluid wasn't changed and it resulted in deteriorating function of the transmission. That's what I'm arguing.

Cars that have had proper maintenance done do not need to warm up the transmission before driving. Full stop.