Focusing is fine manually and also still very useful software if you aren't fully automated - I am not fully automated one of my scopes has autofocus the other I focus manually.
I use frame and focus to capture a short exposure e.g. 5 sec depending on filter and watch the hfr on frame and focus, I make an adjustment and if better try to refine it, if worse I move the focuser in the other direction - I don't normally loop the frames as touching the scope makes it judder a bit and confuses the situation. You don't need to slew to a bright star to do this - if using narrowband filters you may have to use longer exposures depending on the filter
Julian