I was once told by an old timer,, that he remembered how many folks resisted the new fangled jacketed bullets. Saying that lead was the only way to go.
Well, concerning powder coated bullets,, after having cast & shot thousands & thousands of cast & lubed over the years, as well as trying powder coated bullets in these last several years,,, I can tell you,, it is an improvement (in my opinion) over traditional lubed ones. If the idea of color bothers you,, you can get them in a "gray" color to look like traditional lead too.
They do not attract dirt & debris. they load w/o the mess of lube. When shooting, they do not have the smoke from burning lube, (this is important if speed is necessary.) And in general, they do not dirty the barrel as much, all while giving slightly higher velocities in most loads. A lot of us who have switched to coated bullets have also noticed a slight increase in accuracy.
Powder coating became very popular due to the need for less expensive options for volume shooters while the ammo shortage was in place. Plated bullets do the same thing,, but cost a bit more. Shooters can be cost frugal types, and prefer lower expenses when shooting. Some of the benefits of PCed bullets were just a bonus to many. And, as things were tried & experimented with among a lot of different shooters,, ideas on them got refined to where coated bullets are here to stay.
One of my personal side benefits of using colored bullets,, is that I cast & PC my own. It allows me to color code calibers. I can easily grab a box & know what caliber I picked up just by the color of the bullet. When you play with different calibers a lot,, sometimes this is a benefit. And, if you really want to take that a bit further,, you can get different tones of the same color to refine your choices. (Say a light blue for .38 spl, while a dark blue for .357.)
I'm NOT bashing anyone for not using coated bullets,, just offering observations of their use & benefits I have discovered. Coated bullets are here to stay, and I welcome them.
I had just gotten 10 more tubes of Veral Smith's blue lube when I tried PCing some bullets about 4-5 years ago. I still have those same 10 tubes of lube.