Personally, I prefer trams. You can see the buildings and the stops are typically closer to your destination.
Trams are also not able to deal with high gradients, unless they’re hybrid rack rail, or they’re trolleys rather than trams.
Finally, metros commonly have above ground sections or lines (which is why that’s a better name for urban rapid transit in general).
In which case cars also impede trams on the narrower smaller street.
0) trams are hardly unreliable
1) tram lines are routinely changed around
2) in Switzerland, there is no distinction between local and remote public transport. This has the advantage that you can use the regular trains for short hops. Zürich itself has 20+ railway stations.
Zürich has really opened my eyes for what a good tram network can do.
There is an observation that if you replace a bus line with an equivalent tram / light rail line, the rail line will attract more passengers. The reasons are not fully understood. Comfort probably plays a role. Another reason might be that rail lines are easier to understand. Buses are almost universally confusing, while tracks make it obvious where the rail line goes.
Trams also have a capacity advantage, because the vehicles can be larger. And operating them is cheaper in the long term, because the vehicles are much more durable.
This was the thought here in Atlanta but the streetcar has really struggled. Less than 20% of the predicted daily riders.
As someone who lived in NYC all their life and took public transit to school - buses suck. You have to stand in whatever weather is present: pouring rain, freezing cold, sweltering heat. Maybe there's a shelter, maybe someone is sleeping in it, maybe it's already full because it can only shelter a few people. No matter how "big" the stop is its always the same fucking pathetically small shelter. The ride is substandard with poor HVAC and in the colder months when it rains its miserable and very uncomfortable - damp and cold. Then the drivers have to deal with morons on the road so you get jerks and sudden stops from braking. As soon as I could I bought a car and to this day avoid buses like the plague. Thankfully I only have to take the subway to get to Manhattan as I live 2 blocks from the A train.
With a bus, there's always the potential the route has changed, or your specific bus is skipping over your stop for some reason. With a tram, even if you've never been to that city or part of the city before, you know there's going to be a tram along those tracks, and you simply need to walk along the road till you find the stop.