I used a s/s false bottom on my round coolers, and it always worked great. For my Ice Cubes, I use a straight Bazooka Tube which works great as well.
I havent used a manifold yet, but after hearing everyones success with them, it seems that whether using a false bottom, manifold, s/s braid, or Bazooka, they all seem to have received some good credit. It would be cool to see someone do a side by side comparison of all these methods to truly show which is more efficient. Personally, I think the results would be very close.
I do agree that making your own gear is the coolest though!