"I have my own set of macros somewhere"
That's the thing I run into also - just forgetting stuff!
I use direct port manipulation all the time with SPI.transfer( ) to make that go fast.
I don't trust that the SS pin is always where it should be, so instead of just toggling the bit with
PIND = 0b00000100; for instance,
I'll make sure I know what it is with
PORTD = PORTD & 0b11111011; to clear the pin and
PORTD = PORTD | 0b00000100; to set the pin
I don't code every day, so I haven't memorized the other direct methods, and this way I know my code is in sync with the hardware I am using because I usually have a schematic of what I am working on.
So, faster than digitalWrite, maybe not the most extreme for speed, but the code is inline and it goes pretty quick.
I will use the PIND method when I toggle an output and don't care what it was previously.