On pixel-peeping vs. image resolution

Good photographers don't pixel-peep. They check for sharpness, and know how far is too far.

I'm not a good photographer. Certainly not as good as I'd like to be. Given a good opportunity I will pixel-peep. I realized this recently and I think this is one of the reasons I don't enjoy photography as much as I'd like to.

I have a 24 MP camera. I have intentionally downsized to a kit lens and I refuse to use other lenses unless absolutely necessary. The sensor resolution is overkill for this lens so I use the camera at 13 or 6 MP (yes, I prefer JPEG). I've covered my typical scenes at all resolutions. What I've discovered is that on average I like the photos taken at 6 MP significantly more than the ones at higher resolutions.

Taken at 6 MP and cropped a little. Could you tell?

My theory is that I like 6 MP because there's no room for pixel peeping. Seen at 100% the image isn't much bigger than my monitor so even when zoomed in I'm still basically analyzing the whole photo.

I decided to stay at 6 MP for now but it is a crutch. This will bite me when 4k monitors become mainstream; sometimes it is a problem even now when I have to crop and/or rotate a photo. I'm looking for better ways to stay on course when judging my own photos.