Stick Sunscreens have to be glided at least 4 times over a particular area to reach a 2g/cm2 & attain the claimed SPF!
That’s going to take a lot of time to cover an entire face Plus the surface on our face is not very even so we may skip reapplication over a few areas like the corners of the nose, under the eyes, jawline, etc. leading to compromised protection. Like lip balms, stick sunscreens have a lot of paraffin making it heavy and cosmetically unacceptable for primary application specially if you’d like to use make up over it.
You may want to use a lotion or a cream-based one as your primary sunscreen as they contain water, alcohol and cyclopentoxylate which have better absorption capacity. So you can top it up with makeup and then use a stick sunscreen as a top-up after a few hours when you’d like to reapply.
I genuinely feel sticks can be used on body parts with large surface areas and even contours like the arms, legs, and the back.