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When I am using my zoom eyepieces I stop concerning myself with focal lengths or magnifications as I move between them effortlessly. Th eyepiece disappears, in a manner of speaking, as I focus my attention on the target, not the eyepiece.
The only time I am aware of the focal length setting on the zoom is when I am making notes for my observing report. Other than that I pay no attention to focal length.
I find I spend most of my time in the 18 mm to 8 mm part of the range. I only know that because someone asked me and I had to notice what I was donig.
Normally I start with a low power wide view eyepiece. In a 1.25" focuser that would be a 32 mm Plossl or perhaps a 25/26 mm of some kind. Then I switch to the zoom where I am looking for the optimum magnification.
As a result I don't spend a lot of time in the 24 to 20 mm range. I start there but quickly move to more magnification. I may drop back to the low power end to regain something that has slipped out of the field of view. Or I use it when I hand the scope over to someone else. Then they can turn the barrel to get the magnification that is most pleasing to them.
Likewise, when I add the barlow, I may start at 24 mm but I soon leave it for higher magnification.
That is how I use it.
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