misunderstanding your arms and engine strength is not going to nail down drag. One cannot spin it enough to realize they loosen as you move, and get warmer, the air cools. Thats like saying an engine without plugs in it has a problem..it still turns with some difficulty. it needs to run, warm, WOT, and ignore it.
manually adjusting is going to leave a cylinder popping, there is no such thing as a heavy duty wheel cylinder. I have popped one in tiny drums (subarus, vw rabbit sized) to the large 13-14 on gas trucks. humoring every little spring and auto adjust is imprtant to respect, it also helps bearings, the drum is a goofy thing to spin without the pads on the inside of it. Try spinning a tractor trailer drum sometime...claim it is drag on that one.
