If you're playing really intelligent players and you like c-betting then you have to c-bet for metagame (so they respect your c-bets since it'd be exploitable to only bet 2pr+ and air).

But checking here being my standard line evolved while playing a ridiculous laggy game (something like 40/25)where I would raise any 2 in position and check behind a ton then bet turn/river.

So it was more important for me to protect my turn/river bets than my c-bets since I c-bet so infrequently. The reason behind this frequent flop-checking was the knowledge that I usually had the worst hand preflop and wanted another card so I could suck out on villain's holdings.

So yeah, I suppose my advice is irrelevant for someone playing taggy with lots of c-betting. OP mentioned that villain was semi-loose passive but not a total donk.

Even a semi-loose passive will rarely call off 3 bullets with worse whereas after you check the flop they'll often call turn and river with worse.