How do you reach the skinny grooves along both sides of the hood?

Those hood channels are the worst spot on pretty much every car, so you're not doing anything wrong. What works for me is a set of the small 1 or 2 inch pads on a mini polisher. If you don't have a dedicated mini machine, some of the small pads will fit a drill with a backing plate, though drills spin faster and can flash the paint quicker, so keep the speed low and let the polish do the work. Even a cheap 1 inch pad gets in there way better than a full size pad ever will, and you stop getting that grabbing and jumping because the pad is actually sitting flat in the channel instead of catching an edge. For the tightest spots where even a 1 inch pad won't seat properly, I fold a microfiber towel into a flat pad, put a couple drops of polish on it, and work it with two fingers in overlapping lines. Same technique as your finger wrap but the flat surface gives you even pressure instead of a point contact, which is why you were getting hazy patches. Foam applicator pads meant for wax work too, you just go through more of them.

One thing to watch on a Honda that age is that thier clear is on the soft side, expecially black. The channel edges tend to have thinner clear anyway because of how they spray the hood, so light pressure and plenty of polish is the move in there. Don't chase perfection to the point you're dry buffing in a groove. Honestly though, decide early how far you're going with it. Those channels sit shadowed and nobody sees them at normal viewing angles. If they're uniform and just slightly less glossy than the rest of the panels once you clean up the haze, most owners woud call it done. But with a mini pad setup it's maybe twenty minutes a side, so worth doing if the car belongs to someone picky.

I had the same fight with a groove like that on my old truck. Two things helped. First, tape off the raised edges on both sides with painter's tape so you stop worrying about the pad or your fingers catching the lip. Once the tape is on you can actually lean into the channel instead of being scared of it. Second, wipe a little polish in with an applicator and let it sit a minute before you work it. The haze I was getting mostly came from working dry polish around instead of letting it break down first. Took me three attempts to figure that out.

I fought the same battle on my old black Accord and the thing that finally got those grooves right was a bag of trim swabs, the long cotton ones sold for touching up trim and emblems. I'd work a drop of polish in with the swab tip using short passes, wipe with the other end, and check under the light as I went. What sold me was being able to see the cotton picking up product instead of guessing like I was with a wrapped finger. Took way longer than a pad would but no haze and no surprises. Might be worth a shot if the mini pad still can't sit flat in the narrow part of the channel.