Paul,
The flare does 2 things - it reduces forward speed but also, by increasing rotor thrust, reduces rate of descent; obviously both of these are very important because hitting the ground at 60-70 kts@1500 feet/min will hurt.
Opinions differ as to whether or not during the flare you should raise the lever slightly to contain the rising Nr; the danger is you will raise it too much and decay the valuable Nr - the advantage is that you will further reduce speed and Rod as the rotors total reaction is tilted backwards and you are again increasing rotor thrust.
As Paco rightly says, flare effect doesn't last for ever - it is the change in inflow angle that produces the increased angle of attack and therefore rotor thrust; if you want more flare effect you must keep tightening the flare. The problems with this are a. as speed reduces, the change of inflow angle for a given amount of nose up reduces so the slower you are the less effective the flare and b. you do not want excessive nose up attitude just before you try and select a level attitude for landing. As you push the cyclic forwards to select the landing attitude, you are rotating the aircraft fuselage about the centre of gravity - the C of G is still going downwards so you are effectively accelerating the aircraft towards the ground. The bigger the attitude change you have to make, the worse it is and you are undoing some of the good work you have done to reduce the RoD in the flare.
The check is a positive but small raising of the lever as the benefits of flare effect are lost, to further reduce rate of descent and forward speed (the total reaction of the rotor is still tilted backwards) and is not used to level the aircraft (in fact it tends to make the nose pitch up slightly). If all goes well in the flare, the check should come between 10 and 30 feet depending on type and conditions - however it is not recommended for low inertia rotor systems as it robs you of valuable Nr which you will need to cushion the touchdown.
The selection of the level attitude should be made gently for the reason given earlier and because it is too easy to over rotate and end up a little nose down.
Finally the cushion - this can require the full application of lever but again should be progressive; unless you are about to smack the ground hard, a snatched cushion will often level you off with one or 2 feet to go to the ground and the Nr decaying rapidly.
Although the EOL does seem like walking a tightrope at first, in that even the slightest error will mean disaster - most aircraft are quite forgiving and providing you land in a level attitude with no skid or drift, will at least let you walk away from it.
I spent several happy years deliberately doing EOLs wrongly to give student QHIs practice at intervention and recovery and it surprising what you can get away with on an EOL.
Hope this helps Have a Chat.