I prefer from afar. The only thing that causes me to make a mistake is having to rush because the deer surprised me or is too close. Typically, regardless if it is a doe or a mature buck I stay pretty calm and collected during the encounter. It's after the encounter is over, whether I shoot or the deer just walks off that I start getting Elvis leg and I fall apart. It's funny, even a spotted fawn will cause my leg to start shaking but, not until it disappears out of sight.
Also, another reason I like to spot deer from afar is that almost every encounter with just a single deer I go through my entire shot process. I typically don't do it with multiple deer because there are more eyes and I don't want to spook them. With a single deer I will wait for an opportunity, pick a spot, draw anchor and do everything except release the arrow. One of the reasons stick bow shooters miss is because they do something different in their shot process when shooting at a deer. The only way to practice it is to go through the process with a deer in front of you and MD doesn't give me enough tags to shoot them all.
I don't recommend doing this if you have issues with snap shooting. A friend of my fathers tried it once. Problem was as soon as he touched his anchor he subconsciously released the arrow and shot a deer he had no intentions of shooting. lol