no, mask attack would be MUCH, MUCH faster if you just try "random passwords". every operation involving the disk would slow it down tremendously as already explained above when we compared -a 3 with -a 0/1/6/7
but this depends a lot also on the hashing algorithm. we distinguish fast and slow hash types in general, one that can be considered raw or non-iterated and salted hashes versus hashes which have a lot of iterations or a high cost factor
-m 12500 = RAR3-hp for instance has 262144 (0x40000) iterations, so it's technically already considered a slow hash type
but this depends a lot also on the hashing algorithm. we distinguish fast and slow hash types in general, one that can be considered raw or non-iterated and salted hashes versus hashes which have a lot of iterations or a high cost factor
-m 12500 = RAR3-hp for instance has 262144 (0x40000) iterations, so it's technically already considered a slow hash type