Alt-vp rule applies to vineyard/duke/feodum slogs where you want to prolong game as much as possible, not gardens rushes where you could pick province to get point lead if you have opportunity.
Here you both make mistake of picking dungeon, it often was worse than silver. Opening is definitely magpie/silver as you want to hit 5 soon and often.
Here seaway-magpie is obvious, swamp hag, gold, jester, butcher. Both of you could get it instead of buying these. However correct was get butcher on first 5, then seaway could wait a bit as you could save coin tokens and get it turn before magpies are out. Depending on magpie pile get second butcher before/after seaway.
Gardens rush here doesn't seem that strong if both players don't empty dungeons. However gardens are relevant as they will likely be 4 point at end. With magpies you want extra copper to improve magpie hit rate.