Hot take: I quit imaging drives with software and just use a $28 dock now

I used to swear by booting into a Linux USB and running ddrescue for every failing drive that came through my bench in Sacramento. Then last month a client brought in a 2011 iMac with a clicking drive and I tried my cheap USB dock with a raw sector copy tool instead, just to save time. It pulled 94% of the data in about two hours, which was faster than my old method ever managed on a drive that bad. Now I keep the dock on the shelf next to my screwdriver kit and only break out the full Linux setup when the drive is really on its last legs. What's your cutoff for when a drive is too far gone for a simple dock copy?