100%. A lot of times when we feel good, and we are starting to fly, we think “let’s add more!” And eventually just fizzle and possibly plateau…wondering, how did I go from great to just meh. And that’s hard to accept, and people add on more, thinking it will make things better. Been there, done that!! 
It’s impossible to make a blanket protocol, but I don’t think you need a full week of zone 1. I’d try:
Day 1: OFF. NO RIDE
2: recovery ride, SOOO easy. See how you are feeling.
3: off or recovery
4: 60% endurance…does this feel as easy as it should? This is a great litmus. If you’re hungry to push harder, DON’t, but you’re prob good to go after this. If not, rest more! For the reasons you said: cutting the recovery short and never really recovering.
I rather take 6 days and come back 100% than dilly dally around always cutting it short, and training and racing at 90%, only to 2-3 months later finally admit that I need a serious rest period.
And getting in that overreaching point is not a bad thing and something to be embarrassed about. Truly finding your limit involves that. Kind of as mentioned above: when you’re going really well and then kind of fade, it’s not that you “peaked” and aren’t “peaking”, it’s more often people are tired. I force rest, and then they come back RIPPING again.
Hope that helps!
When in doubt, take a day of rest.