Well, I can't speak to the retractable or swing holders, never having use them. One shop I worked at back in the 70's was a repair shop, great experience. I hardly knew what carbide indexable tooling was. We never used HSS, but always had C2 and C5 brazed bits on hand for turning, boring and threading. We kept a diamond wheel for dressing the edges on them. When I worked at McEvoy, nearly everything was inserts, save a few profile tools, or part off tools. That was before Iscar and those folks developed good partoff and groove tools.
Now, in my own shop, it's all carbide inserts. Partly it's because of the materials I machine, and partly for time/cost, and partly for finish at speeds higher than HSS would allow.
But then, the initial costs to get going on carbide inserts is pretty high and may not be justifed. It's much cheaper, and a good experience to learn about angles and grinding tools with HSS. Cobalt is generally best.