A hot soldering tip keeps the soldering time short. Your approach is good. With too cold soldering irons and long soldering times you easily damage the surrounding components. Therefore I avoid small devices which are often lacking power.
On the other hand, some soldeting tools tend to overheat when in idle for a longer time. I prefer regulated soldering irons and use a Weller Magnastat. 50 Watt power, small and high quality soldering tips are available, and no risk to overheat due to the regulation. But it is expensive.