I use the tilt stage a lot. Doing football matches I always give a litle tilt down since the field have something like a 5% declination for water porpouses, that you can really feel when you are using the zoom. When I m doing conferences or concerts is the oposite. I use the tilt up since the stage normaly is in a higher level. You can do the tilt with your hand forcing the sled but in my opinion if you can choose, choose the tilt stage. I would put the less efort on the sled as possible. Sometimes it's not possible of course but as much as I can, I try to use only small adjustments on the gimbal.
My two cents ;)