Well, for weed, those buckets suck pretty bad.
Have you ever had somebody hit a bong improperly, and there is a shit load of thick white smoke in the chamber and the noob can't quite finish it, thus you have to take the rest of the ultra thick, stale, airy hit in yourself?
That is the only smoke I have ever seen from a bukket. It was so unpleasant to use the bukket for pot, I really don't know how it would work for spice.
Plus if you lose track of what you're doing, it's really really easy to blow the contents of the bowl all over the room... a gravity bong is way better.