I think it depends on the technical ability of the person building the course.

Anyone who's comfortable with editing JSON and doing basic HTML formatting might well find the Framework easier. Those who aren't will be more comfortable with the Authoring Tool.

You will be able to use the Trickle extension with the Authoring Tool.

There are some areas where using the Authoring Tool can be harder.. for example, say you want to have Trickle configuration that is different from the default... in the Authoring Tool you'll have to set this up each time. If using the Framework you can just copy-and-paste the settings. This is a known issue.

Best thing is just for you to give each a try and see for yourself. The Framework is very easy to get up and running if you follow these instructions. The Authoring Tool is harder to install - but some of the involved companies provide free trials you can use, canstudios have one for example.

What I will say is that if you want to develop new functionality for Adapt you're definitely better off doing that in the Framework, even if you are developing plugins to be used in courses built in the Authoring Tool. Get them working in the framework first then upload into the Authoring Tool and and make sure they work in there. Suspect the same thing applies to theming too...