Agreed that for any given application there is a ball/spherical powder that will do as well as Varget.
Disagree that there is any single ball/spherical powder to use for Varget in every application..
Tac certainly in a .223/5.56 and similar but not in a .376 Steyr..
I suspect but I've never tested it that stick powders may shift less in the case and so have a more consistent burn than ball powders that may be closer to case head/primer or just under the bullet when fired. This as the flip side benefit of not metering well. Hence I will pay the price in nuisance and use say IMR 4064 for some accuracy loads especially in gas guns.. I am often reminded of Mr. Oehler's pistol load that was supersonic with powder back and subsonic with powder forward and the fun he had with it.
That said I use measures from a Little Dandy through a Harrell's to a Quickmeasure for large stick powder loads. It doesn't get the attention it deserves but a search on this board will find a number of people who like Quickmeasure very much..
A good manual measure is approaching the electric powder thrower price range and the only drawback to those is maybe a little slower. I won't replace the Little Dandy but IF I were still competing or loading prairie dog/ground squirrel for the next day I might use two electric alternately on a progressive.
