Practicality of using export/import as a backup for E-Business

I was told that we can use an export/import as a backup method in a long patching project.

Based on my past experiences with export/import of an E-Business suite these are my comments:

They take significatnly longer than other backup methods. For example RMAN, or using normal copying or tar of the datafiles are a lot faster. Am import can take atleast double the time an RMAN restore would take for example.

Before doing an export I will write a script that will count all objects in the databases. For example I would like to know how many tables, views, triggers...etc AR had before the export. After the import I would run the same script again to make sure all the objects were indeed imported. I have seen instances in the past where triggers were lost and they had to be rebuilt.