Fair enough, going for factory is one for the detailing ocd community.
Scratch X is meant to be applied with a foam applicator pad, megs sell them for about $5, using a rag would lessen any effort, even a cheap microfibre cloth or terry towel would be an improvement.
Scratch X is also nothing like a wax, it's an abrasive with no real fillers, you can think of it like extremely fine liquid sandpaper, most polishes fall into this catergory.
Waxes are designed to protect the paintwork from the elements, it also makes cleaning the car easier since the dirt is sitting on the wax, the best bang for buck wax is Collinite 476s, a couple of layers would last 6-9 months, and it's also very easy to apply, i use it on my car.
I don't know if you get Autoglym stuff in the USA, but for hand application nothing would beat Autoglym Super Resin Polish, i have used this to great effect in the past by hand, and even more so by machine, it's also pretty cheap.
I found a little test on DW forum of hand application stuff, annoyingly the after pics for scratch x are missing.
Swirl Removal By Hand - Test