So far I haven't found a thumby F to be any easier than a barre F, but I have found that it has one major advantage that hasn't been mentioned yet.

The difficult thing about the thumby F (for me, anyway) is the high E string - it's very difficult to fret those two treble strings with one finger while reaching around for all the other notes you have to fret. I always end up muting the high E string instead of fretting it.

However, the chord doesn't sound bad with that string muted. On the other hand, when I play a barre F badly, I get buzzing, which is very objectionable.

Insofar as a muted note is a lesser evil than a buzzing sound... a badly played thumby F will sound better than a a badly played barre F.

Marion