If your seasoning is so thin it can’t handle some steel wool or making a tomato sauce, you’re doing yourself a favor by exposing the weak points so you can reseason it.
When there’s a gap in the seasoning, I mainly use food-grade linseed oil, it’s got a very low smoke point so it’s easier to put on a very thick layer of seasoning.
Real cast iron mains know about the buffed soap meta and will adjust accordingly. Fake cast iron heads clean it with cold water and a prayer because they haven’t read strategy guides since 1590.