Hi,
Both methods work equally well - on paper. In practice though, using LATx can be better.
If you discovered that you "had to use" LATx instead of PORTx then you most likely have something misconfigured (analog inputs not disabled) or you're trying to several consecuitive bit operations on the same port with capacitive loads on the pins and high oscillator frequency resulting in read-modify-write issues (which is also what happens when you don't disable the analog stuff).

There's, to my knowledge, no drawbacks in using LATx (where available) so go ahead and use that but change your TRIS bits to 0 for the pins you want to be outputs.

/Henrik.