The question asked if there would be a "better" join. I think that requirements vary so much from place to place, it's impossible to say what's "better" in a generic sense. For example, at Blackpool, the airfield I now fly out of, which has ATC, an overhead join is rarely "best", since it adds time to the flight unnecessarilly, and a base leg join is more normal, with slight variations to fit in with circuit traffic (such as joining at 1500', or positioning behind the downwind traffic). On the other hand, I learnt to fly at White Waltham, and I can't think of a "better" way of joining there than the standard overhead join. And if I owned my own farm strip which wasn't published anywhere so I could be reasonably confident no one else was in the circuit, I could do whatever type of join I wanted.
I can think of lots of alternatives which might be better where a radio is required, but I'm struggling to come up with a join which will work as well at busy non-radio airfields.
As Genghis says, the American 45° join works well in America (especially with the number of small GA fields that have parallel runways with oposite circuit directions over there, which immediately rules out an overhead join). But it's also worth pointing out that this join is not legal, since it involves, in a left-hand circuit for example, a right hand turn.
FFF
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