Is a gas fireplace better than a wood-burning fireplace?

I had a gas fireplace. I liked it pretty well. When I wanted heat, I walked over and turned on the gas/pilot and I had heat. I also had a lot of brick in the mouth of the fireplace, and it would get warm and give off heat for hours. At some point I could turn off the flames and still have good heat. I personally didn't feel safe leaving the flames going all night, though. As for aesthetics, I had some very real looking concrete logs - with the gas flames, it all looked natural. No messy ashes to get rid of in the morning, either.