Same here, ditched my coated basket last year and never looked back, plain metal just works.

Man, the old foreman isn't wrong but the crew isn't either. It's not the cutting itself that gets you, it's the water sitting in the brick after. If those bricks go up wet and then a hard freeze hits before they dry out, that water expands and blows the faces off, but that takes a real cold snap and time. Guys wet cutting all winter in Galveston are probably fine because it barely freezes there and the brick dries fast in the sun. So it's less about the temp when you cut and more about whether that brick is still soaked when the freeze lands.

Who actually wants to rent a plate compactor for one little patio job? I did the lazy version and it held up fine. I dumped maybe two inches at a time, watered it just a hair, then beat the tar out of it with a hand tamper I already owned. Took way longer than a machine would, sure, and my shoulders hated me for a week. But three years later the pavers still sit flat, no dips, no wobble. If you're doing a whole driveway, rent the machine. For a small walkway or patio, the hand method is honestly fine.