There is no real "better" arguement, it is rather a style thing and where you use it.
In the case where you said we should use not instead of == 0 it will not work.
var = 0
var == 0 is true
not var is false
Afaik when I did things back in like 2008 it was if variable == 0 then if the variable is false then...
Today I use if not variable insted of if variable == false or 0.
If the variable is supposed to be true, just use if variable then