Although each of these methods can be used individually, you might find that a combination of two or all three works well for you.
The whole point is that it is much easier to have materials in a place where you at least know where you can go find them.
Having materials scattered across.
A 3D Application files is just not efficient 3D design.
Perhaps one of the most common mistakes of many novices is to accept the default material name that 3D Application gives you.
How many Material #1s have you built before? This can be painfully obvious if you have multiple Material #1s in your Material editor and you try to assign them to two different objects.
3D Application likes to have unique material names in a scene.
This means that you will need to spend a little time creating material names as you use them in your scene.
Fortunately, if you get in the habit of at least giving the whole material a unique name, you can avoid a major amount of the confusion.
However, did you know that 3D Application allows you to not only name materials but also sub-materials and even Map names? Most animators do not realize these facts, so their materials are littered with Map #1s and the like.
How easy is it to recognize a map named like that when browsing using the Material/Map browser? A properly named material with a map versus a material/map combination that uses the defaults are the right choice.
Which one would you rather use when browsing several materials looking for the right "Stucco Wall"?