I personally find it easier to pass a mildly annoying test every couple years than to track CE hours, so that's how I recertify.
It is annoying though. I'm pretty sure they're trying to make it easier but it's confusing. The real issue is that none of the old folks at my station care about keeping up the NREMT up as they don't even have one, and the career folks just care about state which is automatic as part of doing their jobs.
Just remember that for every CBT you do online, you also do a hour of practical sign off.
I would find it quite hard to stay in practice just doing the test, nothing beats the randomness of patient contacts.