Of course its a preference thing. But i have yet to meet a single person who wasn't blown away by the feel of switching to cleats.
They offer more confident foot contact, which can definitely be nice, although oddly enough perhaps most significant on bikes with clunky derailleurs. My hardtail has platforms, which feel fine except for the occasional instance where the drivetrain momentarily loses pressure in the middle of a rear shift.
But in my experience, most of the "massive improvement" is a silly trick where marketing tells new cyclists that they should be driving up hard on the upstroke, which can "feel good" when you're at a point where you haven't figured out a decent pedal stroke, and so a bunch of people sort of buy into it. It's probably a valid tip for edge cases like sprinting, but creates inefficient and clunky form for cruising.
I think another factor with people hating platforms is that stock platforms often aren't particularly good. Moving from stock wellgos to SPD-SL 6800 can be an improvement, no doubt; but so can moving from stock wellgos to a half-decent platform with set screws.
edit: Oh, and this is especially silly with vintage bikes whose pedals were meant to go with cages and straps
and cleats that fit into the gaps in the pedals which a lot of people don't realize existed. The resulting "platform pedal" is basically flat metal, and often one side has a bulge so the result is also a one-sided pedal that doesn't gravity itself to the correct side. And when those things get wet... D:
Me on the other hand cant stand wearing cycling gloves and just use a nice gel bar tape. Meanwhile everyone els around me doesn't seem to ride without them. I like the feeling of the road on my hands.
It depends on your hands and the gloves in question. I can deal with some amount of squishiness on the bars (most of my bikes have gel cork tape), but I can't use padded gloves without pinching the crap out of my nerves. I usually wear full-finger unpadded gloves, occasionally going glove-free.
