You're quite right. My favorite tinder is the cotton ball soaked (but not too much) in petro jelly then pulled apart. I have found that once it's burning some of the jelly liquifies and runs into the ground, wasted. A bit of foil underneath keeps that liquified jelly at hand and the whole thing burns longer. A piece of foil shaped to be underneath and around the tinder adds a windbreak, too.

The late Gene Ward packaged the petro jelly tinder in foil packets for these reasons.