Removing cat and specifying the file directly to the utility doesn't move the needle in any tangible way either. At the end of the day do whatever pattern work

Removing cat and specifying the file directly to the utility doesn't move the needle in any tangible way either. At the end of the day do whatever pattern works for you - for me it's doing "cat file |" at the start of a pipeline and "> outfile" at the end. I also avoid globbing inside a pipeline as it can be dangerous too.