I've been playing for 6 years now (holy shit, I didn't even realize how long it's been till now), but I play A type barre chords the same way. I used to fret them by having my index barre the stings, and have my middle, ring, and pinky finger fret the A major shape. I stopped doing it mainly because of how limiting it was , and you can only go so far up the neck with that formation. I also like having the freedom of my pinky finger to play a 5th or a 7th easily.
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