If I could openly talk about the unpublished material then this conversation would be easier. I still do not have a clue why it needs to be kept a secret since anyone can just go ask LLResearch for the material.
What you said is exactly how all 4 exercises are laid out. The Exercise of Fire is the easiest to understand because you are working with hand gestures. The other 3 have you think deeply about the connection or relation to what you are reading.
I am not Chinese and do not have a background of the culture or history. I am going by the book I am reading, "The Complete I Ching” by Taoist Master Alfred Huang. Li means brightness. “During times of darkness and danger people should cling to one another. When they do, things get brighter.” If you watch the interview of Jim McCarty in the link I provided then you will see the hand gestures that are explained in the Exercise of Fire. What Jim did not include was what was being related to the hand gestures. Think of absorption and radiation. One could take in power and keep it for themselves or one could radiate it outward to help. However, when you read the Exercise of Fire your first thought is this is how I heal another without thinking about the process behind it. Before Fire or Li is Dui or Lake. The energy that you give to another has to come from somewhere. One could say the energy was already present and therefore inherited from whatever came before. According to the I Ching book I am reading Dui is being related to a marsh where rice grows. In other words, something has to be present (marsh) before another action taken (eating food or taking in energy). If you compare the Exercise of Fire with the hexagram Li then I am sure you could draw a similarity from your point of view.
LLResearch was given 4 exercises that skips steps. After Fire (Li) is Thunder (Zhen) followed by Earth (Kun) and Gen (Mountain). The remainder exercises are similar to Water (Kan), Wind (Xun) and Heaven or Sky (Qian). If you jump from Fire to Water then you may run into a problem. The Tao of Humanity must be included when working with higher energies. Otherwise, you are unbalanced.