The alternative is tweezers. There's a few really annoying problems:
It's very easy to squeeze a bit too hard or not quite get the grip right and the part will ping off and you'll never find it.
If the tweezers get a bit of solder paste on them the components start to stick so you can't let go of them.
It's really hard to get the components out of the tape - so you tend to have to tip them out and then they are upside down so you need to flip them over. Which is really hard with tiny components and again you often lose them.
For larger components (e.g. MCUs) its quite hard to pick them up in a way that is easy to place with tweezers.
It's very easy to squeeze a bit too hard or not quite get the grip right and the part will ping off and you'll never find it.
If the tweezers get a bit of solder paste on them the components start to stick so you can't let go of them.
It's really hard to get the components out of the tape - so you tend to have to tip them out and then they are upside down so you need to flip them over. Which is really hard with tiny components and again you often lose them.
For larger components (e.g. MCUs) its quite hard to pick them up in a way that is easy to place with tweezers.