Very nice Carl!
To answer your question, they are both effective in their own way. A thermal barrier should not be used alone as a top coat because its heat rating is lower than a high temp coating. You can flowcoat the thermal barrier inside a set of pipes or use it as a base coat under a high temp ceramic. Doing a dual stage application gives you a heat rating of 2200*F. I have thermal based only the inside of Harley pipes keeping the pipe cooler to the touch. Harley pipes are beautiful left alone.
The only thing to consider when using a blanket or wrap is that it holds in the heat making condensation, this condensation over time pits the metal and eats away at it. I have seen many turbine housings and manifolds from members on this forum that have switched from wraps to ceramic that have been badly pitted.
Many manufacturers of turbine housings or manifolds will void their warranty if you use a wrap or blanket.
Ceramic coating with a Thermal barrier is designed to dissipate the heat faster keeping under hood temps cooler. You need to move that heat around, not have hot spots under the hood.
In lab testing we used one uncoated pipe vs one coated pipe with a thermal barrier. Burner temps at 1112*F the uncoated pipe had a temp of 900*F. The pipe that was coated had a temp of 770*F. You should be able to touch those pipes without causing severe burns within minutes of shut-down.
Regardless of what you choose to do, this is a personal preference, make sure that the coater that you get understands what coating to use when building horse power and tuning. After doing a build your car does not always start up and stay idling and everything is wonderful. You will have spikes in temps while the car starts and stalls, make sure that the coating can hold its own under these conditions.
I have had a few DSM’s come in with coating that only lasted a few hours after running.
Also, powder coating insulates it does not dissipate. Powder coating the cold side of the turbo is great if all areas around it are kept at a lower temp. Powder coating will start to melt at cure temperatures (385*-400*) There is allot of radiant heat under our hoods.
Hope this helps.
