This is a question that has really evolved for me as a collector over the years. My revelation on this topic occurred during the transition of my Star Wars collection from the Power of the Force 2 (POTF2) era to the more modern The Legacy Collection/The Vintage Collection era. Specifically, one day when I was staring at Garindan. The issue at hand was whether or not I wanted to replace/upgrade my 1997 POTF2 Garindan with the newer 2006 The Saga Collection version. The big hanging point for me was that, at the time, I preferred the molded plastic capes to the cloth ones. This was true for Garindan, Emperor's Royal Guard, several different Vaders, and probably many others. Part of the issue may have been that I was just accustomed to the plastic, or maybe that the soft goods at the time were thin and didn't always look all that much like an improvement. But eventually I caved and starting replacing all of my display versions of characters with the newer TLC/TVC style, soft goods included, and now that is the dominant standard throughout my collection. (One notable example of soft goods usage I do not like is Grand Moff Tarkin's lower tunic, but that's probably another article.) One reason I prefer the soft goods now is that it (generally speaking) implies higher quality and lends itself more to customizing and better positioning. I do not necessarily like the myriad hybrid approaches used on several figures, such as the aforementioned Tarkin figure, several Obi-Wan's, etc., where a portion of the character's clothing is hard plastic and a portion magically transitions to soft goods. I personally prefer one or the other in appropriate layering, where feasible. But again, as with all things collecting, it's really all up to personal preference.