I feel for you. I don't think you will be able to remove the new finish without also removing the old finish under it. I should probably stop typing here...
The upholstery industry finishes/refinishes leather very differently than we do. I did a good bit of research a while back into refinishing a beloved (though not irreplaceable) recliner I have. Here is link to a company on Youtube that does what your "craftsman" did, if you want to see the steps a professional goes through in restoring leather upholstery: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZoytEDMZCDZfNfyz1WfTg
Doing it right is a lot of work. It does involve a spray gun, but you don't give that gun to a monkey...
I have not done anything with my chair...however, I did refinish a pair of shoes using traditional leathercrafting products.
If you want to remove the finish entirely and start over, I would not use lacquer thinner, acetone, alcohol, or any other hardware-store product. Instead, I would use Fiebing's deglazer. Angelus makes a similar product, and both are made to strip finishes from leather shoes so they can be refinished. I used the Fiebing's on a pair of old shoes that I wanted to try a "patina" finish on. The deglazer worked well for the task, completely removing the old finish and even lightening the chocolate brown dye a bit (a plus for me, probably not for you).