I like the idea of thinking of this as a spectrum! When I’ve done tabling, however, (only a little, when I was at Google) I still found loaning worthwhile: since we’re all regularly coming to the same campus returning things wasn’t that hard. And if someone had acted like they didn’t think they’d be able to return it I’d have told them not to stress about it and to pass it on to someone else when they were done.
(Not trying to pick on you or your group! And you’re better placed to figure out what’s working for you.)
I like the idea of thinking of this as a spectrum! When I’ve done tabling, however, (only a little, when I was at Google) I still found loaning worthwhile: since we’re all regularly coming to the same campus returning things wasn’t that hard. And if someone had acted like they didn’t think they’d be able to return it I’d have told them not to stress about it and to pass it on to someone else when they were done.
(Not trying to pick on you or your group! And you’re better placed to figure out what’s working for you.)