One should indeed read Pope with his notes available, in the Twickenham edition possibly, to see what a vast amount he did understand about Homer.
It's a mistake to dwell too much on the consequences of a piece of work that you're making.
I still get a lot of material but I find that as one gets older you get more fussy. You know you're going spend a year or a year and a half on this and you know there are only so many films in you so you get a little bit more selective.