Bushings will handle the load better than a bearing due the contact area of a round bushing compared to the needles or balls in a bearing that only contact at multiple points around a 360 degree circle.
This is often a question we run across about roller lifters in our race motors. Bushings hold up better but bearings have less drag so you need to decide what is more important in your application..
For what you are doing seeing the shaft isn’t going around and around thousands of times in a minute and only rotating back and forth part way a bushing would not concern me one bit. No performance to really be gained by a bearing swap.