Over here, I've seen a mixed bag. Development places working with R&D or grant money see more metcal (where cost IS no object). The rework folks like myself seem to lean more toward Hakko, Weller, Ungar, and a lot of the cheap Chinese stuff. I just got a Quick hot air rework station, mainly for doing SMT rework and small run proto's.
Above 50 MHz, SMT inductors can be had in values close enough to suit your needs, and the repeatability will be better. Not sure I'd use torroids at 300 MHz...
+-RH