I have used (and still have it laying around) a Loupedeck+ , the keyboard style kind of thing. With new sliders introduced in Lightroom the layout of the dials and knobs felt a bit limited or less optimal to configure and there were newer devices of Loupedeck with smaller form factor. So partially due to GAS, I decided to buy a "Loupedeck Live" with several dials, some touchscreen knobs and some physical knobs.
I mainly use it for my rugby photography where I edit a large number of photos and where I do a lot of cropping.
After my cull outside of Lightroom Classic I import the selected photos. I then apply some general settings to the photos like color temperature WB, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, darks, texture, clarity, dehaze, vibrance. some sharpening.
I have the dials set to the exposure relate sliders that I used most to tune on a per photo basis. With one of the touch screen knobs I can change the function of the dials to the next set of sliders I mostly use for tuning (temp, tint, clarity, dehaze, texture).
Furthermore I have set knobs to got to the previous or next photo and to past settings from the previous photo. With another knob I engage the crop-mode, and when in crop mode, my dials are configured to do the cropping (angle-large steps, angle small steps, size of crop, move crop up-down and left-right). With just small movement of my fingers I can do the cropping fast, so I do not need to switch between the Loupedeck and the mouse.
When I'm away and use a laptop, while leaving my loupedeck at home, I realise how my efficiency for those large badges of photos increases by using my Loupedeck Live. The configurability and small form factor really come into play there, not sure if the Loupedeck+ would offer me the same.
It comes down to the functions in for example Lightroom you use most. If you do a lot of local edits, do not tune many sliders after applying a preset, then there is less value in Loupedeck.
Next to the efficiency, the advantage that I feel the Loupedeck offers is that a dial feels more natural to move sliders, while looking straight at the image, than moving the mouse and changing head angles to select the slider and look at the image and vice versa.
