Bex:
First, your decision was safe and therefore good. In my opinion, it is good to push your minima and comfort levels a little bit when the right opportunities present themselves (but within your legal limits, obviously). This way your inceasing experience is of value to you. However, pushing your limits is only safe if you know when to turn back. You did. Well done.
Secondly, I agree with other posters that an IMC or IR rating does not change the difficulty of making good airmanship decisions. It only changes the weather conditions at which you make them.
Two potentially bad situations I got into, despite additional ratings, were:
With an IMC rating, late on an autumn afternoon, ending up flying over rapidly forming solid status and without knowing how low the cloud base was. It turned out to be about the same level as the MSA, so all was well. But, an early decision to divert would have been safer.
Secondly, with an IR, flying into icing conditions in an aircraft not cleared for this. I made the decision to divert eventually and all ended well. A better decision would have been to turn back as soon as icing was encountered.
Both incidents were 'I leaned about flying from that' episodes for me. So the ratings alone are not the answer.
Regards
AA.