The main advantage of the paths tool is the perfect curves you can get. They require much less (or 0, sometimes) cleanup time after. Also, the path is handy to keep around if you want to regain your selection without having duplicate layers everywhere (yes, you can use a mask. I also use a wacom tablet sometimes, but mainly for adding back detail like hair and feathers after cropping something out. I'll go back and add detail in that way. As steady as my hand is, I am unable to get the smooth curves that are quite easy to get with the paths tool. Once I got used to the paths tool, I found it saves a lot of time over other methods, including trying to zoom in and erase with a wacom pen. The more you zoom in, the longer it will take. It's like changing your racing track from a few hundred feet to miles. YMMV however.

~

Not sure what you mean by small image size? The paths tool works quite well even on very large images. My camera spits out 23megapixel images, for example, and I edit them in GIMP for commercial adverts. If I had to go around the edge of everything with an eraser, I'd be hurtin. lol

~

Great video, I like the fast pace, instead of someone waving their mouse around the screen for 2 or 3 minutes

Yes, a path is just points and curve parameters, whereas a mask is bitmap data applied to an alpha channel... still not sure why it's "cheating". Your path should be the same size in kb no matter how large your image is. Larger image does not mean more path data, as long as you have the same number of nodes. ?