You do error in your conclusion. In Rev.9 we are told that a star, which is symbolic representing and angel, is given the key to the Abyss, which is required to unlock it. Then here in Rev.20:1 we have another angel that also has the key to the Abyss, which is required to lock it back up.
"Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the pit of the abyss. The star opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit."
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete."
So according to both scriptures, a key (whether tangible or spiritual) is required to open and lock the Abyss. Therefore, your assumption that the key is not literal, but only symbolic is false and therefore the rest of your assumption that is based on that is false.
The fact is that, the words "a thousand years" is repeated six times. We are told right in the scripture that Christ will rule during that thousand years and it is this same thousand years that Satan will be locked up in the Abyss. You're always talking about something not being stated directly in the scripture, well right in the scripture it tells you that this time period is a thousand years in duration and you're still not believing it, even thought that is exactly what is written.
Also, if you don't think that clouds can be present in both the gathering of the church and the in the Lord's return, you're not going to get very far with interpreting scripture related to end-time events. You already seem to be following after the false teachings of preterism.