Guess I didn't explain clearly enough. In your example, for the second guess (and each time after that), you'd have to choose whether to use PTIO (without the A) or PA (without TIO). So, for each guess, you adhere to either all the clues you got on the left-hand word, or the right-hand word.
That's my way of playing hard mode for dordle, anyway. Perhaps you can give it a try 🙂