Is one circuit better than the other to drive the PNP transistor?
In most applications it doesn't matter.  The first circuit will turn off the PNP a little faster, which would only matter in high speed switching, like if the load was being PWM controlled.

Here is yet another topology to consider:



This only works if V+ is about a Volt or more higher than the highest VCTRL can be, but can be useful when that is true.  I'll let you think about how it works.

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