No, it would not trigger a wash sale even if you bought the next day. Step 3 was already a wash sale, but it only matters if you hold the stock past the end of the year. If you sell the rest of the stock this year, all transactions are within the same tax year so the wash sale has no effect.
If you hold past the end of the year, the wash sale rule just defers the loss until you actually sell. The 0.50 loss this year will be applied to the cost basis of the remaining shares, so your cost basis for those shares will increase to $1.50. So it just means that you pay less tax on the gain (or can claim a loss) when you sell next year (or later).
Wash sales do not prevent losses - they just defer them. I would not consider the wash sale a reason not to buy the stock not if you think it will go up (which you obviously do or you wouldn't buy it. The only reason you would wait is if you intentionally sold in order to tax harvest and don't want to undo that.