[Formulajones]

First question, absolutely run a vacuum advance. Even on higher effort 700-800 hp NA street engines I run a vacuum advance. There is no downside to them, only benefits.

On the distributor, it's really personal preference. I run an MSD box on pretty much everything and trigger them different ways.

My preferred method on the daily drivers is to use the factory points distributor. If you want dead nuts reliable this is the way to go. If the box ever fails I can switch wires on the coil in a hot minute and drive away on the points.

On the more radical stuff that uses the MSD box, I've run the complete MSD stuff on those for about 30 years, with the MSD billet 2 wire distributor, vacuum advance, and the digital 6 with 2 step, timing retard and start retard etc....
All of that stuff for me has been reliable and trouble free for decades on 2 different cars. Bought that stuff back when they were still in Texas decades ago and have had no reason to touch it. Even though they have now moved most everything over seas like everyone else has, it doesn't stop me from buying their product and I still have good luck and great customer service from them. In fact I have another billet MSD 2 wire setup with vacuum advance and a digital 6 box sitting here ready for the new build I'm doing.

I trust that stuff on a drag and drive event, hell I drive them all over the place now several hundred miles away. I would just pack the necessary pieces in case something happens, you can never be too prepared. Chances are you won't need it.