No doubt I would change the way I do this. But - the manual shows the gear being pulled with the quad seal and spacer in place. And those two shouldn't have made the difference.
But from now on (like I'm going to be doing this on a regular basis) I would do it different.
Remove the seal, spacer, and quad.
Fine wire brush the journal, clean it real good,
Start pulling gear, with either oil or never seize on the journal - watch the right side of the tool for it bending ..........................
Once it starts to move if it doesn't continue to move freely press it back on and re-pull.
That failing just put some pressure on the bearing and hit the inner race with a torch.
BTW, I tried pulling the bearing off the gear with a heavy duty puller (on the bench) and it wouldn't budge. I was able to push the bearing back on with little effort.