To a certain extent, there’s a difference between playing at home for your personal enjoyment, and professionally gigging for a venue. At home, there’s no time constraint between songs, or even between sections, there’s a cushion to allow a fair bit of faffing about.

On the gig, not so much. Perhaps not the same degree of experimentation pays off unless expectations are pretty low! This is really where the setup in advance pays off. Of course, you aren’t completely locked in, if you can change lead sounds on a whim without it being apparent, sure, go for it! But the setup in advance system at least gives you a fallback position, somewhere you know works.

Both systems work, just IMHO some work better in certain situations....