Bunches, potted, pads, cuttings?

[idris]

Can someone help me out with the differences between, and pros and cons of bunches, potted, pads, cuttings etc etc as listed by various retailers?
My instinct tells me roots should always be preferable to cuttings, but some threads and videos I've seen (on the likes of the Tropica website) suggest some plants can have nearly all their roots cut off, and one retailer has said pots are not ideal if I want to split them, apparently in contrast to what's suggested by TMC.

I'm expecting to start the plants emerged so any advice in the context of my current list of intended initial plants would be appreciated: dward hair grass / amazon swords / crypts (variety tbc) and valis (variety tbc)

 

[Steve Smith]

Cuttings are usually fine with stem plants but potted gives you a stronger plant in my opinion. Sometimes you might not get the same amount from a potted plant, but I think that this isn't always the case. My preference is potted plants

As for pads, that's usually things like mosses. You'll usually get a 5 or 10cm square, or pad. This is purely down to making it easy for the seller to sell portions, without having to divide it into clumps. It looks a bit neater than a clump too