Never say never, I innudate myself with too much research, goes to ALL the hotel booking sites (including the official, the loyalty program one, various OTA) and find the best option for myself. My experience had been that MOST of the time the OTA is cheaper (maybe not the OTA you mentioned, but A Go Da or Boo King had been quite competitive. But for complicated bookings I’d go direct or local OTA (think Japan ryokans with Ra Kuten or Ja Lan)