I think hand regging is the best way to start when you are a rookie domainer, because making lots of mistakes on $9 domains sure beats making lots of mistakes on $59+ domains.
I know this too well bacause I have dropped around 1,000 domains!
But luckily I started with hand regs and ebay auctions maybe 14 years ago.
However, once you have figured out hand regging and have made some sales in say the xxx range, maybe one or two have hit xxxx, then you might carefully consider whether to simultaneously test the waters in drop catching. Slowly and carefully. The rewards can be higher, but so are the risks.
The quality and return you can find on the drops is far higher on average, but your acquisition cost is also far higher.
So after countless mistakes, I now have a high level of skill.
If you buy a large number of hand registrations and sell them for $500, you can make a comparable income to someone who only sells a few domains bought for say average $350 but sells them for $5,000. Everyone has their own style.
Search time is a big factor. Imagine you are paying youself a wage for every hour you spend searching.
This post is also sort of answered by the current NP hand reg competition where I have been surprised that a few domainers have found some very fine and valuable domains:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/hand-registration-contest-march-2019-dot-com-only.1126476/
I’m really glad I took up the challenge of entering because I greatly surprised myself by actually finding a couple of good names.