yeah, the hardcoat has been gone. The clear finish is the first thing to go. Once the clear starts coming off from the top, it's NO MORE. It's just a plastic lens now. I have put wax on them, specifically the Meguires yellow wax in the can. I would put a coat on, wait a day, put another coat on. I have put a total of 4 coats on those things and they still haze out and look like crap in a month or less. This was before I sanded them with 400. I generally do the 800 - 1500 - 2000 routine< but it just wasn't working out too well. The plastic had a very rough texture to it on the lens front. Like it was badly weathered. The rough texture was still hazy & impeded the light output. The normal routine wasn't getting it out, so I went to 400, then worked back up the chain, and then polished and waxed.
I never go for those headlight resto kits. I figured I have batches of sandpaper in nearly every grit range (besides the elusive hard to find 3000 grit), plus I have all sorts of waxes and polishes, many are Meguires. Oh and I also have a big 1 lb can of MAAS. That stuff saves me time in the middle, and all I need to do after that is the finishing compound and wax.