If you own a voltmeter. You should see about 1.3 volts between the hot wire feeding the first glow plug. At the front of the engine and ground. With the glow plug circuit energized.

If a loop plug shorts internally the shaker will still light and even some glow plugs may operate. I doubt this is the problem. On the other hand I have had some diesels that just did not want to start and run with a glow plug or two not working.

This condition you describe as condensation under the hood seems strange to me. I live in eastern Canada and resided in the Toronto area of Canada in the past. It may be common but at the same time I never remember catching that condition with a car.

Taking an hour to settle down after starting is another strange thing to me. Any evidence of say a head gasket leaking under the hood? I also wonder about water in the fuel.

If that is really condensation under the hood. It will possibly be condensating heavily in the fuel tank. I might pull the fuel filter and dump the fuel in a glass jar looking for water after the contents settle a little. Actually this is the first thing I would do now as even if there were a problem with the glow plugs. The engine would not take that long to recover once started.

Technically you may have blown the head gasket as well. Look in the radiator when running for bubbling etc. Do this before the engine coolant gets too hot. Do no scald yourself. A bad head gasket can make the coolant gush out when the cap is removed sometimes. Better to start the engine with the rad cap off.