Re: TRAMP password caching

[Richard Stallman]

    2 - the performance of scp is good for large files, but not for small files.
        The performance of ssh is just the opposite.  The advantage of ssh here
        is that it doesn't surprise nearly as much: nobody is surprised that
        editing a large file remotely is slow.

scp gives the better performance.  It causes a small slowdown for
small files.  It avoids a big slowdown for bit files.