Brake pads won’t back up when using hoods

I’d wager that where you’ve wrapped the bar tape right up to the crosstop lever, it’s causing issues with the tension between the two levers. So the tight kink in the cable outer just as it exits your bar tape into the crosstop lever means it can’t release the tension smoothly. I’d tempted to remove a section of the tape just before your crosstop lever and perhaps would’ve used a slightly longer outer there too, to reduce the sharp bend as it enters the crosstop lever.

This is also why I personally never bother with the crosstop levers since you get subpar leverage and it’s always a bit of faff sorting it out and trying to get either lever dialled in. Would rather have a consistent powerful lever feel at the hoods and just move my hands preemptively