If the animations are easy, its probably a thousand times easier programming. Have you considered using the Timeline node? You can create curves, and easily play-rewind-replay this curve data out to your individual pieces to have your transitions.
You can simply have your position offset for the individual pieces multiplied by the position value 0…1 on the timeline node for easily scrolling between locations. I imagine you can treat rotation the same.
I would have to say programming would be more efficient but the performance impact wouldn’t be noticeable. Visually, animations might look better. Depends on your preference and what you do when you program the transitions.
I hope that helps!