There are definitely efficiencies to be had, though I don't know enough of the math to judge one vs. the other. During my brief patent career, I wrote the patents for a distillation system where the main elements involved heating water that was distributed across rotating blades (heat + surface area + air movement) to evaporate the water. When the water was collected, it passed through a heat exchanger that exchanged heat with the in-flowing water. The result was a very efficient system on a small scale, at least.