Well, maybe not 'easier' but more elegant. I don't like the look of rings. And the way current pickups are made, the baseplates are all made to be suspended from rings. Wood screws don't hold over time, and make it difficult to adjust.
What do you mean by this?
This may depend on the wood, but every guitar I've either built or worked on with wood screws going directly into the wood has eventually vibrated loose over time. I've repaired them, but there should be a more permanent solution than tiny wood screws.
The pickguard screws on my 30yo strat partially agree; the screws that hold the trem springs however, do not. Of course they are bigger and longer, but I've set up this trem for 4 different tunings and at least 5 different string gauges over the years and they never moved on their own... at least not to my knowledge.
