I would use dragging on larger components like QFP but 0402 is very tricky for me. I am happy to be able to place it at all.
Reflow seems to be much easier for me as I can take multiple tries at placing the flux paste and then the component and then once I'm happy with the placement I no longer have to touch it and instead hope surface tension and solder mask will do its job.
Takes more work but with my eyesight, no stereoscopic vision and limited motor skills I am pretty happy I can do it at all.
Have you tried not using solder paste and instead using a "normal" thin solder wire (with jelly flux)? I prefer to use that over solder paste for everything up to 0402.