All opinions are welcome.
The stiffness gives more control and power. The shoes I'm currently using were intended for MTB use and have a fairly rugged sole which sometimes get caught crooked on the pedal making it hard to straighten out my foot on the pedal, It's just annoying not bad enough to worry about. I think I'll switch back to road shoes next time. I should also mention that I use half toe clips. They also cause my foot to be placed with the ball directly over the pedal spindle.