Thanks for the feedback! You're right, the way the game should work is if you roll above the next stage it will still unlock.
This text is still in the current rules in the horror turn section: "If the die face doesn’t match or unlock a stage, then unlock the next stage card but place no fragments this turn. No scene occurs, and the Horror turn is over."
Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I'm looking at the current rules and it is there. I'm sorry if you missed that part of the rules and your experience suffered from it.