Hello,
You know what they say: The only thing that doesnt change about life is that life always changes.
I've only recently started to use SMD again, but only once in a while. I did not have to use bga yet though.
One thing i must say is that if you are going to do SMD you need a PC board with the right pattern to start with. Without that, it just doesnt work. If you can make your own board then that's cool too, but it has to have an accurate pattern.
Solder paste does help. When it melts it 'finds' the pins due to adhesion or cohesion and surface tension. It's amazing to watch. When the paste is applied it looks like it might solder all the pins on one side together forming one big short circuit, but it doesnt do that, it separates as it distributes itself between all the pins when it heats up.
I've also used deadbug style for 0.05 inch pitch IC's with #32 AWG wire, but it looks like crap when it's done.
I also miss the days of the 741 although i would not use that particular chip anymore either. My first amplifier was with the ua701 op amp. The one i had had a metal top but was still a dual inline DIP package. Used it with two transistors for a power amplifier.
Life always changes. Unfortunately that is in almost all areas of life too. I guess we have to look at the bright side, where we can build much smaller circuits if we HAVE to.