When I first began smoking pipes in college, I could only afford "basket" pipes, which were mostly billiards. As my income and small collection began to grow, I added pots, Dublins, Canadians, Rhodesians. I later added some Pete bent billiards.
I find that now that I am a geezer pipe smoker, I do like the bents, full and quarter, since they hang easily from the jaw, no pressure on aging teeth. But, I would not trade some of my old billiards and other straights for anything. They are old friends.
As others have said, though, straights are much easier to run a pipecleaner through.