Refinishing table, Water-Based Polyurethane Dries Fast and Leaves Blush after Sand. What to do?
The blush is precisely because you're sanding. You're taking the nice, smooth, shiny surface and putting millions of tiny scratches into it.
You have identified your own problem: As you indicated a slower application rate allows you to eliminate the bubbles and that eliminates the need to sand, but it's drying to fast for you to work slowly. So, you need to make some changes to your application setting:

Wait for cooler, drier weather.
Work indoors where it's cooler and drier (assuming inside is air conditioned).

Make sure you still have adequate ventilation, but a water based product shouldn't be too bad. Read and follow the instructions on the tin.


Buy a poly that has a slower drying time.

Any one of those 3 should help significantly.
Do not use a power sander, even with 220 or finer grit. A machine is going to take way too much off way too quickly. Unless, of course, you're trying to remove most or all of the coating.
When applying the poly, you should only need to sand if you're planning on adding another coat. The sanding (220 grit or higher, by hand, very lightly) is designed to give a &quot;key&quot; to the existing surface for the new layer to stick to. It has the added benefit of knocking off any bubble or nibs (bits of dust that settled on the wet surface).
Once you're satisfied with the surface you've got, STOP! There should be no need to sand your final coat.