I find INDEX and MATCH to be more useful / flexible than VLOOKUP. The only issue is a lot of people get freaked out when they see a INDEX / MATCH statement and, instead of trying to learn what it does, claim that your model is wizardry and don't feel comfortable using it without your supervision.
Combining INDEX and MATCH is more versatile than VLOOKUP as you can do things like have the result you return to the left of the value you're looking up. However, VLOOKUP / HLOOKUP are simpler to understand when starting out, and that's a good thing when you're trying to build confidence in using Excel.
