In my experience Eternal is the best quality sound plugin, but it is absolutely useless for TASing. Unfortunately, sound plugins cause a great deal of desync in pcsx and the TAS plugin exists as a plugin useable for TAS purposes. It doesn't emulate all games well, but it is the best that we can offer at the moment while still assuring that the author's work is relatively robust. If you are concerned that your submission will be discredited in some way by using the TAS plugin don't worry as these issues are known by the judges and they have not yet affected a judgement. I can't imagine that it ever would unless the sound makes the run unwatchable, but most of the errors seem to be missing sounds rather than annoying ones added in so you should be fine. One thing to do is post a WIP in the PSX forum to get feedback on whether or not the sound is bearable.