Does chanting have a practical and exclusive benefit? Other chanting answers tend to explain tradition, but this question only concerns practicality.

Are the benefits of chanting exclusive, or can your practice easily be full and productive using other techniques?

For example, I don't sit lotus for any special reason. Simply to maximize stability and lessen distraction while meditating. Could someone develop a great practice sitting in a chair instead?  I would guess they could, without necessarily missing something important.

On the contrary, if someone wanted to understand and fully benefit from Buddhism by becoming a master scholar, yet without putting in serious time meditating, I can't see how they'd even really achieve understanding let alone full benefit.

So which is it in this case? Is chanting just one of many paths of practice that is good, but not the only way?  Or is it something fundamental such that omitting it is necessarily a detriment?

(if it matters, I most often study metta meditation personally, but often sit with diverse groups where chanting is done)
It is an antidote for the Hindrance of Sloth and Torpor


  (3) RECITATION. If, Moggallāna, that drowsiness still would not go away, then, Moggallāna, you
  should recite in detail a teaching that you have learned. 
  
  It is possible that when you do so, that drowsiness
  would go away.


Pacalā Sutta

It starting point to builds concentration also take you to the final goal of liberation.


  he himself recites the Dharma in detail to others, just as he has heard it, just as he has mastered
  it in theory.
  
  Bhikshus, just as the monk recites the Dharma to others, he knows the goal and he knows the
  Dharma,
  he knows the goal and he knows the Dharma.
  
  Knowing the goal and knowing the Dharma,
  
  gladness arises in him;
  
  because of gladness, zest arises;
  
  because of zest, the body becomes tranquil;
  
  when the body is tranquil, he feels happy;
  
  a happy mind becomes concentrated.
  
  This, bhikshus, is the third ground for liberation where the unliberated mind of a monk, dwelling
  heedful and exertive, finds liberation;
  or where the mental influxes, not wholly destroyed, become wholly destroyed, where the unattained
  unsurpassed safety from the yoke is attained.


Vimutt’āyatana Sutta