You mean passive systems like wick or Hempy buckets, right?

I would say this depends on how many plants and how much space and what style of grow as much as anything. I started with an ebb & flow system. At first, it used plastic flood trays, but this quickly became limiting as the plants grew.... quickly. A few tinkerings later and I had a multi-flow system connected together with 1/2" tubing so that I could position and move plants anywhere in the room and quickly add or remove plants from the setup.

That system was great for a large room with probably 10 to 40 plants... as long as you do a good job in construction and don't wind up with leaks.... many an annoying prototype on that system before I got it all worked out. Use home depot 2 1/2 qt paint mixing buckets and plastic T-fittings, 1/2 inch. Drill through the side of the container as low as you can with a 3/8" drill bit. Press the T-fitting through, the plastic of the container will stretch and almost make a water tight seal... but not quite. Seal the connection up from both sides with a hot glue gun. Now you're in business

That was fun, but I don't have any such cool space or any such cool grow going on any more.

Now, I've got a microscopic grow that I want to get the most efficiency from. It's a tiny closet just big enough to support my hobby. I only have 3.75 sqft to play with (3.75 for veg down below, and 3.75 for bloom above), but I've got a $h!t-ton of light on it so I plan to switch back to hydro so that I can allow for fast enough growth and nutrient uptake to really use all those lumens. I don't want the noise of pumps, or bubblers, and I don't really have space to locate tanks. I don't want to use flood trays because my light position is fixed and I want to be able independently raise or lower plants to provide an even canopy. I'll only be growing a few plants, so individually attending to them won't be much of a problem. For all of those reasons, I am planning on doing Hempy Buckets when I switch over from dirt. I think it's about the perfect match for my new space.

I'm planning on doing mini-hempys in Styrofoam coffee cups, then transfer into the same 2 1/2 qt containers that I used to use for ebb & flow for late veg and bloom.