RE: Plow VS Disk
A lot of what you want depends on what type of soils you have and how much moisture you get.
I have never plowed with a mold board, and try as much as possible to keep the disk parked. I only disk maybe once a year. Otherwise, I use chisel for tillage and weed control.
My annual rainfall is supposed to be 25"/year, but more times than not it is closer to 20". The low rainfall combined with high temps make my soil very low in organic matter. Unless I keep a lot of residue on the surface, my soil would get so hard I couldn't do anything with it.