I have a technique that follows this philosophy, the powder's in the top 3 in almost every manual providing the top velocities are the most efficient for that case capacity. If any one of them are hard to come by or not available, it gets dropped from the list and another powder is chosen. I search both bullet and powder manuals, sometimes they agree and, other times they do not.
I also have a good knowledge of what powder is going to be suitable for a particular case size, ie.
17/22/223 Start with 748, Benchmark, 8208.
22-250/22-250AI Start with H4895, Varget, H4350.
260/7-08/308 Start with Varget, 760.
25-06/270/30-06/338-06 Start with H4350/760/H1000/Retumbo (depending on bore size)
All belted magnums. Start with H1000/RE25.
Large magnums RUM/NMI/Rigby based. Start with Retumbo, US869, H50BMG.
Larger than this. US869, H50BMG, RE50.
I don't have any real world data for VV powders, so I didn't include them, it's not available here.
Cheers.