@C.E. so far small tests prove you are right that Extract just after is better than any Sow tricks. Probably for specific cases with packed arrays one could come up with limited workaround but in general it seems fine to call Extract.
Out of interest, how many people got the email from Wolfram Publication Watch about my CompoundMatrixMethod? I'm guessing it depends on what subject areas people have ticked on their user portal.
Currently there are 131 questions with the tag eigenvalues. This includes both questions around the finding of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix as well as of a differential operator (and associated eigenfunctions).
As someone who is interested in questions of the latter type but not of t...