Why is this a problem? It was meant to be continuous, cause the whole guide is a single process

I feel it becomes more difficult to scan and can be a bit overwhelming. It seems more manageable in groups of up to <10 steps than 18.

Fair enough. I'm still worried number 1. might look like a "first step" , possibly leading people to assume they are decoupled from previous steps - which is NOT true

Can we try to find a middle ground? What about something like:

<section name>
1.1 ....
1.2 ....

<section name>
2.1 ....
2.2 ....

....

This would preserve your groups of <10 steps, while still conveying a global order.

Sounds great!

I got the check boxes to work again and implemented the new numbering. I had to switch the order of the check boxes and the numbers for the check boxes to be clickable.