I found shooting from the hip a lot easier but of course this takes lots of practice to get right and as I am inexperienced it resulted in a lot of failed images as most of them relied on guess work and crossed fingers.
You get a lot more of the scene in the shot with a wide angle though so there is more possibility of cropping down later to alter composition.
Wide angles create more depth in an image and can be used to emphasise the parts of the scene closest to the camera which can give the viewer a sense of being inside the scene.