I don't do a ladder test per se, primarily because I don't shoot precision rifles that have the required accuracy or the limited barrel life. I shoot five-shot groups in 0.5gn increments at 100 yards, measuring the velocities, the groups, and the group's mean elevation on the target.
When I worked up my 7mm-08 loads with the 100gn HP for varminting, I shot AR2206H from 41.5gn up to 45.5gns (ADI list 41.0 to 45.0). Velocities and group size went:
41.5gn (no velocity recorded) 1.25MoA,
42.0gn 3026fps 1.3MoA,
42.5gn 3058fps (+32fps) 1.0MoA,
43.0gn 3065fps (+07fps) 1.0MoA (cooled right down - clean-cold-barrel shoots 60-80fps slower than the second shot),
43.5gn 3108fps (+43fps) 0.7MoA,
44.0gn 3178fps (+70fps) 1.0MoA (hot barrel from previous group),
44.5gn 3212fps (+34fps) 0.7MoA,
45.0gn 3244fps (+32fps) 1.5MoA (starting to show pressure),
45.5gn 3264fps (+20fps) 1.5MoA (showing pressure).
The groups went from 5mm high to 45mm high, but from 42.5 to 44.0gn the vertical change in impact was only 10mm. So within that window is where this load shoots well in this rifle even across 120fps variation in velocity. For example, if I shot 25mm groups at 100 yards with loads of 42.5gn, 43.0gn, 43.5gn and 44.0gn, and then shot a group with one round from each of those loads, it'd still be a 35mm group, at least in elevation.
From that, I shot groups from 42.8gn to 43.6gn at 0.2gn increments and settled on 43.4gns as the most accurate.
I still need to test seating depths, but it's shooting well enough (0.5-0.7MoA is the norm off a bench) that I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm about ready to do all this again as I'm switching all my loads across to benchmark 8208, I'm seeing more consistent velocity with it in the .204.
Although I might fire 100 rounds developing a load for a specific bullet, I don't consider any of that to be "wasted" or "burning out the barrel". Every round I fire is just more practise time
I keep a shot log for every firearm too.