I have done a lot of both - but I confess to not previously using rollers to laydown a hand layup...Having vacuum bagged 8 layers of 11oz fiberglass into a laminate less than 3/16" thick, I would find it astonishing that this can be accomplished without a vacuum. Secondly, if you do some research into building a foam core laminate, doing so under vacuum and filling the rough surface of the foam creates an extremely superior bond and increases the strength of the structure 10 times or more. If I get some time, I'll try to locate that article.

I have done side by side hand laminations and vacuum bagging and achieved substantially different results (but admitedly was not using the beaded rollers at the time for hand laminations).

Even if you vacuum bag without infusing, you still get a much better bond to foam cores. The infusion process allows you to place all your reinforcments before having to deal with cure times and reduces some of the materials needed for production.