My main concern, especially given where I live, is one of convenience and practicality. Take a look at any online shop and you'll immediately see the lack of standardization as to the designs of brake pads for disk brakes, and not many of them are interchangeable. In a place like Jeddah, where there's only one "real" dealer (with just two outlets) and a couple of other "pseudo-dealers" who hardly know what it is they're doing (along with a bevy of shops downtown that sell crappy BSOs,) whether or not they can just hand you a set of replacement brake pads for your particular setup right off the shelf is a crap shoot. "Sorry, we don't have that" is something I hear a lot, and I hear "sorry, we can't order that" just as often. It's usually easier to just order online than to throw yourself at the mercy of a very foot-dragging dealer, but that's still a few days in which the bike is off the ground.

With rim brakes, on the other hand, there thousands upon thousands of different brake blocks that will fit most rim brake arms/calipers. You can drop into any shop (even the small, non-brand ones run by total hacks) and get a replacement for worn or damaged brake blocks - even low-quality ones that will at least get you home. I, for one, have zero interest in making things harder for myself just for the sake of having the latest and greatest. I've gotten by just fine with rim brakes for 30+ years and I have little reason to shift paradigms just to conform.