Like a modern engineer with access to all his predecessors knowledge (trial & error). Doesn't necessarily make the new one greater but it does make it better as they have someone showing them the way without having going through all the trial & error for a few decades first.
Personally, I think if characters get "special" Haki the way King of Hell appears to be, Oda should do the legwork beyond awakening.
After Wano, while still recovering or on the way to Egghead, it would've been cool to see Zoro meditate on King of Hell at least once, like he did after Arabasta w/ Breath of All Things. It would've been a nice moment to have him remember the Reaper that appeared and question it.
Oda could've written Zoro vs Lucci taking as long as it did because Zoro was trying to figure out King of Hell. Sanji slander being a motivating factor would've worked even better because Zoro then immediately using without overthinking could've been a building block to his increased mastery.
Meeting Gaban after that and then figuring out the correct mindset for using advanced Conqueror's Haki would work a lot better, similar to how Luffy figured out a calm mind was needed for Future Vision.