I voted 100% CAB.
I use
SK CabInstl which is probably what the author alluded to. I only sync at work and I almost always install software at home.
If an app does not include a CAB I run the setup at home on my computer that does have Activesync installed, but without a connection to my device. Then I scrounge my hard drive for the CAB files and guess at which one is ARM and copy it to my SD card. Then I install with SK CanInstl on my device. I always put a copy of the CAB in a specific directory on my PC for future use and keep a copy of the CAB on my SD card for critical apps.