Better is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. "Classic" (and such a pain in the pawtuckus that I have never tried to grow a fig, albeit I'm also zone 4 so it's more of a stretch) is a grand procedure where the plant is laid over sideways and buried (in dirt) each winter and exhumed and stood up in the spring. Going from memory roughly half the roots are left where they are and the other half are dug up for the pivot (and reburied in the pile of dirt.) Size of tree is probably deliberately limited to facilitate the procedure, but also probably limited somewhat by the procedure itself.
If I was looking for "better than wrapping it in tar paper" in the modern era (the "classic" technique being hundreds of years old) I'd probably toss a section of "hoop house" polyethlene covered greenhouse structure over it for the winter, perhaps with one of those fancy automatic vents to prevent it from cooking on sunny days (though the vent might cost more than the whole rest of the structure if it was just sized for the fig)
For a more efficient way to wrap it, change from tarpaper to housewrap - 9 feet tall and with effective tape made for joining it, you could make a giant cylinder of the stuff and hoist it over the tree with conduit or a ladder. At least one brand is a darkish gray color rather than blinding white.