Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Wood Floor Finishes -clouding?

I have an 1860 house that was covered with carpet. Took it off and had clean (except in kitchen where there was vinyl and black glue) spruce floors, probably heartwood. I asked for water based poly or varathane on bedrooms floors. the contractor here in Nova Scotia was unfamiliar with same but agreed to do it. The floors that resulted are weirdly whitish, have no gleam (i asked for Satin but have seen water-based coatings that looked the same as oil based), and are now 6 months later flaking off.
I researched this and found he must have put on in too cold weather.
He used: labelled Crystal Clear Varathane which has been recommended by your lists, with differing opinions on water vs oil based coverage. However it is whitish in the can. Is that right?
My carpenter did make second mistake of using furniture grade (!) Varathane—have no idea why, he can read!
Problem now is what to do? Sand again? and not go with water based since no one here in nova scotia seems to know how? is it that hard?
Also, can i get him to do it again for free? That's a toughie i know.
Lastly, i kind of like the light look upstairs; when sanded the upstairs planks were almost pinkish, light; i had hoped to keep that lightness. if i redo, do i pickle? add pickling stain to oil varathane? I know the latter is not usual; it was what the Next Contractor suggested. I feel that i have lost over $1200 on a bad job and not sure which way to go now, don't want to make a second mistake. Will do oil based varathane downstairs but its an old cape and lightness upstairs is nice to expand the space.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Cinema

Sounds like the contractor didn't prep the flooring surface correctly or did not test for wax on flooring surface, because what you are dealing with is the finish didn't adhere to the flooring surface, which is usually caused by poor floor prep or some type of foreign substance on the surface, they/he/she should have performed wax testing had the test been negative, the next step on a floor this old would have been to buff the floor with a mineral spirits towel then buffed dry, the next step would be to screen the floor with the proper grit sanding strips or screen depending on the finish to be used vacuumed, tacked the applied the finish, so at this point you will need to perform an aggressive sanding using a square 12x16 oscillating sander with a 120 grit paper to remove the un-adhered finish after the finish has been removed start from step 1 above or just sand the floor completely from scratch using the normal sanding procedures

all finishes must be applied at room temps with in a 15 degree range up or down or it will do things it isnt suppose to

also if it where my job i would be rescreening it for free

& as for the pickle you should not mix the stain in the finish as it may cause adhesion issues just like the ones you are having, all stain needs to be completely dry before appling finishes