Basically you have two options - acid/base (like Marsofold's), and straight to base (like mine) - and untold versions of each to choose from.
This is assuming that you are working with MHRB and aren't going to be using any elaborate apparatus for recirculating solvent like a soxhlet extractor.
A/B's give a cleaner initial product, don't require tons of lye, and yield a bit better if you take the time to cook your bark for a couple of days.
STB's are faster (hours from start to finish) and that's about their only advantage.
So, despite having developed the tek that I stole and put my pseudonym on, my friend in Antarctica usually works with A/B methods unless he wants to quickly compare bark from two different sources or something like that.
As far as choosing a particular tek once one has chosen a general method, they're mostly the same - the differences lie in technique which I feel is up to the extractor. That's why I left those procedures out of my friend's tek and just included hard facts like what ratios os bark/water/lye/naptha worked best. Even those were based on materials and procedures in use at the time and now I find myself needing to make several amendments (long overdue) to allow for variances in bark (like pre-powdered) and technique (ammonia wash - it works for my friend but so many people have so much trouble with it).
That said, here's what I can tell you:
MHRB does NOT need a defat.
An acid extraction pH of less than 3 is unnecessary and can result in reducing your product to an oily yellow goo.
Teks that claim that the bark need not be ground up (lazyman's) are bullshit.
STB's require WAY more lye than that required to reach pH 13 to yield decently.
A pH of 13 is required with A/B's to avoid emulsions and get a decent yield. This one is hotly contested and something that my friend has been trying to get around for over a year in order to be able to use carbonate instead of hydroxide but thus for has always proved to be true.
Freeze precip is cleaner and allows one to reuse their NP and evap up yields everything that was pulled by the NP.
There's lots more, but these are a few guidelines to separate out what works from what doesn't.
It really doesn't matter if you separate your NP with a turkey baster, a sep funnel, or a siphon or cook your bark in a pot, double boiler, or crock pot - it all works just as well. it's a matter of what works for you.