Without using the render preview, is there an easier way to preview materials as you tweak the settings? Every other 3d program I've used has some sort of preview with various objects to preview the texture on.

There was, but it was removed at least 10 years ago.

jsmack
There was, but it was removed at least 10 years ago.

What's the best practice. Or is it just to use the scene render and focus on part of your object?

I usually do a separate lookdev scene with just the asset in a standardized environment.