Sounds like your dipole was not a very good dipole...

A dipole is a dipole. You can't go by what eznec says.
My modeling didn't match my real world either unless I
cranked the ground quality up in the modeling program.
My GP was *always* about 4 s units louder than the
dipole to VK. Every time I compared. I had a regular
sked over there 3 times a week. The GP was
always 2 S units louder to the west coast than the
dipole. Every time I checked. The dipole was at
36 ft. The base of the GP was at 36 ft. There are
factors in comparing the two antennas in the real
world, that I don't think modeling takes full account of.
Also, my ground is better than yours too. My GP was
higher than your last one by nearly double. Don't
confuse what you saw with your last one, with what I
saw on mine. Mine was a good bit more efficient as
far as radial number vs height in wavelength vs the one
you ran last time.
Of course, S meter readings mean zip as far as actual
db improvement, but there is no doubt my GP smoked
my dipole on long paths. Day and night...And the difference
was reciprical xmit/rcve in almost all cases.

Suit yourself, but any serious DXer will tell you there are times when
one dB of S/N ratio would make the difference between QSO and no QSO

Sure, but the actual signal level increase on a long path is
almost always stronger than any increase in noise. I never
once felt the need to use my dipole for receive in place of the
GP. Would be stepping backwards. Now, on the low bands
like 80/160, a beverage, etc, might be better for rcve, but I don't
use those on 40m.
MK