Dried Lake vs Shaped Strand farming

I did a Vaal Fireball build for the first time, and farmed about 20 ex in Dried Lake, so now I'm wondering if I should use that currency to upgrade the character for Shaped Strand, or just stick with Dried Lake. I've never done Shaped Strand before, or even shaped my atlas (so lazy this league), so I wanted to ask if there's much of a difference. If there isn't much of a difference, I'd probably just stick with Dried Lake, since it's so much more easy and convenient.

My build has a bit of MF, if that makes a difference, legacy Sadimas, Perendus belt, and Biscos. No item Quantity gem or anything.

The difference between farming Dried Lake and farming any map with a good layout is significant, and the higher up the tiers you go, the greater it becomes. If you just alch and go each map, it adds a ton of item quantity and rarity, and often pack density, which are further multiplied by leaguestones and prophecies. You also get divination card drops which are unavailable in Dried Lake, you get the best essences (you can't get essence of scorn, envy, misery or dread in Dried Lake, and they are the ones you want to corrupt for insanity, horror, delirium and hysteria), and you get items with a much higher item level than in Dried Lake. Higher item level = better rares.

Also, shaped strand is possibly the best exp per hour you can get currently at higher levels, while Dried Lake slows your XP progression to a crawl at higher levels.

There is absolutely no reason to farm Dried Lake if you can farm higher-tier content.

The ONLY reason some people, myself included, are farming Dried Lake instead of jumping straight into maps is if they play HC and they just can't handle maps safely yet, or they want to farm with zero risk. Nevertheless, even with a fully MF-geared character (MF gear makes your char weaker and therefore more likely to die) and playing HC, I've only farmed Dried Lake when I thought I couldn't do maps without risk.

The only possible use of Dried Lake farming at higher character and gear levels I can think of is if you're farming gem XP. Gems have no XP penalty, so their XP gain in Dried Lake is great. But IMO you can still farm maps and get all kinds of other benefits while leveling your gems.