Is Bottom Balance better for LFP DIY builds that use not well matched cells?

[Jman]

If you buy bare cells from a seller how well matched will they be compared to a brand name dropin? I read that with the dropin manufacture cells are all machine matched before build. And also that if your cells are not well matched with IR & AH that you should avoid cycling out of the shoulders. Also Sunking says that bottom balance actually balances the AH capacity unlike Top which balances just the voltages.
So would the DIY using bare cells like winston, GBS be better off bottom balancing?
I only take my battery to a full charge occasionally for monitor reset.

[Ampster]

The controversy rages on about top balance versus bottom balance. Even Sunking once said on a diyelectriccar.com Forum that top balance was better in some circumstances. I don't know what he meant by balancing AH capacity on cells that have different Ahr capacities. It all depends on how you want to manage your pack. I have had several Winston/Thundersky packs and never bottom balanced them. The best philosophy with Lithium cells is to stay away from the knees. I use a BMS mostly as a monitoring system because with large packs the balancing current will take days or weeks to balance a pack. What I look for is the differences in voltage of the cells. I set the high and low voltage points of the pack so that the deltas between low and high cells is manageable. The weakest cell will be the one that hits the knees first. All top balancing does is improve the odds that others will be close when it hits the upper knee. The same is true of bottom balancing at the bottom knee. Staying away from the shoulders is better for longevity anyway.

I start out before assembling my pack by putting them all in parallel for a few days. That way I have a starting point and frame of reference. To be clear they are only at the same voltage and not the same SOC.

[tom rickard]

If you regularly go close to the bottom knee voltage - bottom balance your pack. (ie: typical EV use)

If you regularly go close to the upper knee voltage - top balance your pack. (ie: typical house power use)