I'm not sure there really is a debate going on over automated vs interactive multipass video compression. But if there were, I'd point you in the direction of the most widely used interactive multipass compression system in the world. It's called "Save for Web" and is a feature of Adobe Photoshop. Any professional concerned about the quality of their work is going to be using "Save as Web" and interactively working with the compression amount and watching the effect it has on their final product. Irrespective of the huge volumes of research that have been published regarding the JPEG transform and the myriad ways to do it better.

Something to think about every time you open one of your digital Photos in iPhoto, adjust the contrast curve, and watch as the round trip through the automatic JPEG destroys your work.