I guess NetLabs 'is stable by now.
I use the ones that ANPM (RPM/YUM) installs. After they got the problem with -S fixed, I have not seen any problems. I don't think they are the same as what is at Netlabs.
I do use ZIP for a few main directories with over 15K files
One of my ZIP backups has 99480 files in it (this week). No problems, at all. In fact, when I do my backups, I usually do 4 or 5 drives (ZIP jobs), all at the same time. Each one takes a little longer than doing it alone, but the overall time is much less than doing them one at a time. The largest ZIP file is 10.67 GB. It would be larger, but I split out the backup of my VBox installation, so it wouldn't take as long to do the main ZIP job. You do need to make good use of the include and exclude facility to split a section out, and omit files that really don't need to be included.
And I should create boot drive ZIP "clones. I do prefer to install the OS again, but that's not always reqiured.
I can restore a boot drive, in about 10 to 25 minutes (depending on which computer it is, and where the backup file is), including the time to format the drive, before restore. As I mentioned earlier, it is also easy to use the Archive tool, that comes with ArcaOS, to extract smaller parts, when necessary. I can also do a complete install, in about 4 hours (including all of my own programs, etc.). I get lots of practice because I do testing for the ArcaOS installer.
I'm the human package manager over here, which makes creating smaller backups easier.
I doubt that it is easier than what I do. The main problem with smaller backups, is that you need to figure out which one contains the file(s) that you need to restore. If I open the ZIP file in the Archive tool, the whole disk layout is presented, as it was on the disk, when it was backed up. Go for as much of it as you need, and it gets extracted, and put into the proper place (you do need to learn how to use the Archive tool, but that isn't difficult).
To be a little more specific, I ZIP all of each drive, on Monday morning. It takes about an hour to do three boot drives, my programs/data drive, and my VBOX setup (which has a 5 GB VDI file). Then, that gets RSYNCed to a USB drive (actually 2 of them, one for offsite storage), plus my NAS box (actually an old computer, running ArcaOS). That takes longer, because USB and network is slower than the HDD. Duplicate all of that to my 3 other main systems, and you can see that I use the new ZIP, and RSYNC, a lot.
In fact, I almost never use UNZIP, because the Archive tool is much easier to use. ZIP has come a long way, in the last couple of years. Try it, you will like it, but get the one that ANPM (RPM/YUM) installs, or all bets are off.