I think the elimination of the hand pump in the later 60x diesels had more to do with cost containment than any change in technology.

I rather liked the way it worked in my old 123. Change the filter. Pump the primer pump until you hear the popoff valve in the IP. Go turn the key and the car starts instantly - no more cranking than normal. There's something elegant about doing it this way.

Note that the hand pumps can fail and feed air bubles into the system. Depending on how much air, the engine may fail to start or start and run poorly.

In the later cars some cranking is required even if you fill the filter with diesel fuel, and there's no way around doing so.