Bleed cup and angles? 60% of the time it works everytime! Spending 15 minutes on the 5 minute bleed I always find some extra micro bubbles. Unless your fluid is properly toasted, then bottom up method. Though I'm so lazy it's probably 10 to 1 bleed cup to bottom up for me.
I've done a bottom up bleed without the bleed block many times, and accidentally pushed out a piston many times haha. Could just be I channel Mr. Bean when doing anything mechanical though.
Lubing the pistons by pushing them out a little definitely is real and prevents stuck pistons though, makes a difference in lever feel too. I've had a few stuck pistons over the years before I started doing that each bleed, and it's the worst. I think it's why the Marshy method is so good.
I don't know if taking the whole brake off is worth it tbh. When Shimano starting having wandering bite point issues I'd pull the whole brake off each time to bleed it. Eventually I switched to bleeding on the (very elevated front end) bike, and I got the exact same bleed. With the front end up the hoses had a clean uphill run the whole way.
Makes a mess (and Marshy seems like he doesn't know wtf he's doing lol), but this odd bleed is the most effective I've encountered:
https://youtu.be/piWBVDh1pTE?si=hIQ2_0z4TDrvUOga
The Syndicate- pit tips- brake bleeding.