Us Italians, we are very conservative about food, sometimes irrationally so. Maybe because my favourite has always been the rotella/ruota, I tend to try exotic shapes pretty often - recently I had some radiatori and they can be pretty good with amatriciana or other "strong" sauces.

This said, I think the actual pasta quality will always be more important than any fancy shape. Cascatelli that overcook in an instant will always be worse than some old-fashioned penne that don't.