alternative to an FFD deformer with falloff?

Hello,

I was hoping to use the FFD deformer with spherical falloff, but then I realised this deformer doesn’t have a falloff feature.
My plan was to position it over an area of the mesh and rotate/move/scale it, deforming the mesh with precision at the target area with a soft falloff.
I feel like there might be another simple method to achieve this but it eludes me. Any tips appreciated

Thanks,
Nick