I've used several things to hold components in place, everything from rosin flux, solder paste, epoxy and solder mask. I thought about Loctite blue, but never used it. Solder tacking IC corners works well too. I've done a lot more of that lately. I used to use hot air a lot more, but my early technique had too many parts going of into the "9th dimension" as some YT host says. Over the past few years I've learned to preheat the board and use less and less hot air speed which works better than the hurricane levels of air. Oops! Also ordering lots of spares, more so, as a each component gets smaller in size also helps too. Maybe that just me as my eyesight goes more and more toward blind in one eye and not seeing out of the other. Just saying... I've also been experimenting with soldering irons and tips. Also, gone are the days when I could SMT solder without any magnification. So I now use everything to magnify up to and including a microscope.
Side note: I recently ordered a Sequre S99 (full kit including, tip and AC adapter) and wish to pass on my findings. If in the market, save some money and do not order the kit with AC adapter! It is a 65 watt wall wart and after I ordered some new C245 type tips the iron blanked out and reset when I tried to use some of the new tips. Turns out a JBC type C245 tip resistance varies from 2.5 to 5 ohms and the lower resistance tips draw more amps than the wart can handle. I am now using a 19vdc @ 6.3 amp laptop adapter with a coax to USB-C adapter and that solved the issue. A JBC C245-931 spoon tip is very good at drag soldering IC pins.