I don't like using AME because it takes more time and not as fast as AE.Â
(you have to wait for the programs to communicate with each other - sending the file to AME, canceling and such. its not immediate as AE.
if I need another session open of AE , I just use the -m on the command line
AME requires you to have the master switches enabled  for instance you wont get motion blur of frame blending
 if the master switch is off - what you see is what you get and not quite sure about proxies too.
about quality - I found rendering HD resolution files (720p) for preview purposes h264 with 5CBR suffice and other purposes I use QT Animation or Png Sequence right from AE,
and maybe that file I compress with sorenson or AME.Â