I have a Celestron Starsense 8 inch dobsonian. Most of the times, the Starsense app can't find position and doesn't work at all. Followed all the problemfixing tips from Celestron, but still nothing. Strange enough, I'm one of the few people having problems with the app.
At the moment, I try AtroHopper and hope this will work better, but I can say allready that I don't like the layout. Terrible colouring and very unclear. Also, working with the very little green arrow is a pain in the butt. I didn't need glasses with the Starsense app, but I absolutely need them with AstroHopper.
Personally, I also want to learn to find the objects in the sky by hand and my own mind. At first, I look at Stellarium on my laptop to locate where it is, looking at the constellations / stars. Of course, with the moon the smaller stars disappears and this makes it more difficult. I have no finder scope, but I have a red dot finder. After using this, I use the 25 mm eyepiece.
I feel for you. You have a really difficult set up for star hopping on your StarSense Dob.
As others have mentioned, you need a RACI finderscope. My RACI has a 5.4° TFOV compared to the 1° TFOV through your 25-mm eyepiece. That makes a big difference for finding things efficiently. To make the workflow efficient, you want your RACI near the eyepiece. You also want a 1x finder like your RDF or Telrad near your EP rather than on the other side like on the StarSense Dob. Is the RDF on a standard quick release? If so, a three-way finder adapter bracket might give you enough reach? Alternatively, you'll probably need to take out the spider, drill some holes and fit a finderscope bracket.
A laptop isn't a good way to starhop. You either want a paper chart or a paid version of SkySafari or Stellarium on your phone/tablet with a dark red filter. On SkySafari, you can place a circle with crosshairs the size of your finderscope and eyepiece's TFOV which you can use to compare against what you see through your scope.
Good luck
Tak