The rotating images on my work site's home page are created as a View in list format. I'm using the jQuery Cycle Lite plugin for the rotator effect. The cycle.lite.js file is set in the scripts array in my theme's .info file, and there's a bit of code in page.tpl.php to check whether this is the homepage, and if so, set up the rotator.
Now I'm working on a second rotator for another section, and I've been trying out the Views Slideshow module.
What are the pros & cons of each approach (theme vs module), especially from a server load or page weight point of view?