Bitmap printing ESC/POS commands in 2021

The software i'm maintaining has been churning along printing bitmaps via ESC *.
Recently i had to make some upgrades on another component and ended up using GS v 0.

I find ESC * to be convoluted and hard to use, whereas GS v 0 is considered obsolete. So the question is twofold:

• What is the recommended ESC/POS command to print bitmaps in 2021?
• What is the most commonly supported ESC/POS command in the wild?

The EPSON document is as follows.
Obsolete Commands - TM Printer ESC/POS Command

Both are described as being substitute by command groups starting with GS(L/GS8L.
GS ( L / GS 8 L - TM Printer ESC/POS Command

However, some vendors other than EPSON and even EPSON may not support it depending on the printer model(For example, dot printer).
In such cases, ESC * is considered to be in active use.