I use it fairly frequently to tap pay and it's easy/quick to unlock and swipe+tap. I've never actually tried without opening the pay app but I'd like to think it's not constantly looking for NFC payment options unless the app is opened lol.
I haven't put a whole lot of thought in it (rereading this I guess I did put a fair amount of thought into it LOL) other than all of my networking stuff on the left and various necessities to the right. My flashlight HAS to be bottom right though. It's been there so long it'd probably break my brain if I tried to move it. And the other pages I almost never use