For the OP...TBH I'm not sure you can draw too much of a conclusion on best technique from discussion here but I guess it makes for interesting debate.
Aside from the tactical stuff which will screw comparisons ( vilas point) from what I'm hearing there are so many different "sub-techniques" in play regarding FMC use across the operators, especially on long haul ops e.g. wind usage ( which levels do you load?) and frequency of wind up dating ( 6 hourly? After every level change?) ..and there's increasingly thought that FMCs simply no longer have the processing "grunt" to really finesse the levels and speed profiles to produce really optimal fuel useage.. in short I'm not sure you can decide whether method A is better than method B just on the basis of FMC predicted fuel, but I guess you could at least spot a technique that was an outlier.
....and then as hunterboy rightly says when you get back to base having saved 300 kg by climbing at CI 0 to FL 100 rather than CI 57 and find "no one home"...then..................