Out of curiosity: Have you tried firing up some of those cotton balls with your fire steel? What about some magnesium shavings? If the issue *was* the natural tinder, such as too much moisture thanks to high humidity etc., that would help answer that question.

I still have absolutely zero experience with a fire steel (mine is on its way ... hopefully it's here soon!), and really no advice to give from personal experience.

But on the same line of thought, there's also a pretty good reason that char cloth and other portable tinders have been used for a very long time: There's never a guarantee of finding something that will catch a spark, so it makes sense to have at least something with you.

Having grown up in south Louisiana, I can remember well how perpetually wet things can be there.