[DIYguy]

I greatly prefer to patch punctures.
The process of plugging them tends to cause more damage to the tire cords.
Just my opinion.

And of course you really should not patch or plug a tire with a puncture larger than about 1/8" or thereabouts (opinions vary).

I recently had a puncture and slow leak similar to the one the OP described.
I patched it using a radial tire patch and the result was excellent.
My tires have lots of tread left and I do not race my car, so replacing the tire was not necessary.

They stopped using tubes in radial tires mainly due to their greater sidewall flexure.
The tube can abrade against the insides of the tire and also can lower heat dissipation.
However, this is only true when non-radial style tubes are used in radial tires.
There are special radial tire style tubes which are OK to use.
And of course TPMS sensors and inner tubes do not play well (you can have one or the other but not both).
I have never seen tubes that can work with TPMS.