Hard to say how far you missed on the pacing if there were more hills in the back half. On the surface, looks like ~36-mid was in the cards. What was the weather like? Warm and/or humid is gonna throw things off a little in a 10k too.
In general, yes, even or negative splits at the longer distances is the way to go. Look at distance world records. You can see some strong (small) positive splits in the 5k & down. A lot of 5ks go fast opening 1k, steady 2k-4k, fast last 1k. In Alex Hutchinson's Endure, he talks about how you see more Kenyan/Ethiopian runners going out hard (& often times fading) in big road races. But sometimes things align & it leads to a big breakthrough. Sometimes good runners place limits on themselves because they never race like that. You would fail a lot more racing like that for sure. Most amateurs already struggle with pacing so I think teaching them to run even splits is the better call. I don't even think that's what you did here. Would be more like going out in 17:30 and trying to hang on for dear life. Not advocating for that. You're in 36-mid shape in whatever conditions your race was run in.