The main reason I carbonate using bottled CO2 is because it saves time.
I closed xfer into a keg then cold crash. I cold crash under CO2 pressure because I don’t want it pulling ambient air past the keg seals as it cools. As a result, this carbonates the beer and cools it in one step.
To carbonate using priming sugar (DME, table, honey, etc, etc) the keg would have to sit at room temp then cool to serving temp. That would add a sequential step that I currently perform simultaneously.
@Poptop: my concern with foam creation and retention are the seemingly random variables involved. One beer will have great carbonation and shaving cream foam and then the next beer doesn’t carbonate. Weird.