Thomas Shey
Legend
For me I find dice pools simpler and more fun. I'm okay with any type of die resolution system (if I want a clear transparent sense of probability, I would go with something like a d100 based system like Chaosium has). But one thing I like about dice pools is they both cloud numbers (so it is harder for a math wiz to calculate the probability on the fly, while being pretty intuitive, so everyone has a sense of their chances).
That's--not always true. It can be for a relatively simple one, but for an illustration of how to do this so its completely opaque, look at original Storyteller; once you're varying both target numbers per die and number of dice, I'd claim most people's intuitions are almost certainly faulty and they'll largely figure out they have no real sense of chances over time.
I'm not also sure I consider "can't figure the probabilities" a virtue, but I suspect you're more talking about precise probability (though I'm not sure why people being able to do that is a problem).
Admittedly I am biased. I use dice pools in my own systems. But I chose dice pools because I like how they feel (and for me the fondest is purely about the mechanic because I actually like very few games that use dice pools: I always enjoyed the dice pool aspects of those games, but I was often not a fan of the settings they were attached to).
All that said, I do get that dice pools are a tough sell (I've been selling dice pool games for over ten years and so I know it is just a fact: if you make a game with dice pools, there is a percentage of players for whom that will be a non-starter). So it is one of those things where, if you are designing a game, you have to ask yourself if the enjoyment that the feel of dice pools brings to you is worth that (because you won't get the same resistance to something like a die+bonus, or a percentile system). For me, it is important that the games I am making are games I want to play and enjoy (I like d20 for example but I would have been miserable if I were making d20 games for the past 13 years).
I'm really surprised, unless its just people coming out of the D&D-sphere, given the long history of dice pools. I mean, they go all the way back to the original Star Wars game, so I don't know why there's be any ingrained resistance.