My very first attempts years ago were A/B and they failed miserably and hours of work was wasted. I noticed that a defat with toluene was necessary to prevent nasty emulsions.. but being a fool, I managed to put toluene from the defat into a plastic container... it was dissolved before my eyes - big cleanup of smelly toxic waste

My best yields were with STB but that was years later, much was learned in the meantime - Memo you're right, if skill level is high enough it doesn't matter.

Maybe STB is less work, but working with concentrated NaOH solutions is a big disadvantage. It eats flesh, skin and eyes more vigorously than sulfuric acid. I wonder if Ca(OH)2 is a good alternative, I have truckloads of it. Maybe boil it a while in a Ca(OH)2 suspension if it's not destructive enough to break down the cell walls.