Well... I do think we have to be careful about not taking trades just because of "possible" R levels. Here, the only resistance was that one spike up to the swing high. These trades would after all also fill above the resistance level of 32 as outlined. When buying in the trough of a retracement to go long, you are always therefore buying below the swing high where price just retraced from. Of course some levels are more prominent than other, and I think Db has also said before that each rejection of a level strengthens the prominence of that level. In this case, its only one swing high up to 35.
Now it is true that that long at D was in fact the better long, but when you only have what you see going into A, my initial analysis says that perhaps its not a bad place to put a long. The fact that it didn't work out, I guess based on where your exit is though, perhaps makes no difference in that it was a legit trade.
What do you like about C though that you call it good looking PA? Is it the fact that going down was quickly rejected? Its funny because had I taken the long at A or B, I would initially be thinking how unfortunate that I got stopped out, but then the fact that price move up again so quick should make you look for longs right away again, but certainly this time above 35 as now you want to wait for price to exit this range of 28 to 35. This of course makes the long at D so attractive, but going into A or B of course, I don't think there was enough to go on to say those shouldn't be taken at the time.
Perhaps I'm not exactly understanding what you're saying though with your reasons for not taking longs at A and B?
and then place a trade. Intra-day has no time to do all that.