@FindBy is great for static elements. It's clean, tidy, and works well when the page structure doesn’t change much. But it falls short when dealing with dynamic content. That’s where By comes in. It’s more flexible. You can build locators on the fly, handle changing IDs, wait for elements, and pass them into reusable methods. Basically, it gives you control when things get messy (like in SPAs or React apps).

So, use @FindBy for clarity when things are stable and use By when your page is unpredictable or needs more logic. Mixing is okay, just keep it consistent within each page class so it doesn’t turn into chaos.