It's an age old question, discussed in
the first thread I ever started on here. That's ok, we can always have fresh discussions. I just posted that link for anybody who'd like to review the earlier one.
I learned on Case 3 lever controls with swing pedals. Later, I bought a Case 580 that had JD type joysticks, so I, learned that. I could jump back and forth between those two machines and never miss a beat. Still later, I got on an excavator, with Cat type controls, and that took some getting used to, but I found that I could still switch back and forth to that hoe with the JD controls and never had a problem.
Fast forward to today--I've spent lots of time on excavators with Cat controls, but occasionally, a plumber friend of mine will ask me to run his Takeuchi mini, and it has the JD controls, and no pattern switcher. It takes me about an hour to re-program my hands so that I don't look like I'm clueless. You might think that having run that 580, I'd have no problem, but it's the fact that that one was a backhoe and the others are both excavators that screws my mind up.
Last year, we had to borrow a Cat 416 from another guy for an hour or so. My old 580 is long gone. The Cat's usual operator had it switched to JD pattern, and I had to switch it back to Cat pattern to use it, so, so much for the difference between hoe and excavator any more.
Yesterday, I had to load some trucks with a full size Kobelco, Cat pattern. Most recently, I'd been on the plumber's Tak for a few weeks, and a Kobelco mini a few weeks later. On the Kobelco mini, I just switched to JD pattern, becasue I might have to get back on the JD patterned Tak, but I still didn't feel quite at home. I spent about 15 minutes making a fool of myself on the full sized Kobelco, and another half hour being a little uncomfortable, but after an hour or so, I was right at home again.
(Now watch the plumber call me, and screw me up all over again.)
Anyway, having run both the Cat patterned excavators and the JD patterned 580, almost side by side, and done so proficiently on both types, I can't say that my preference would be for anything more than what I'm used to at the given time.
(And it's off topic for this specific thread, but I'll still take the 3 lever Case pattern for a hoe, because I can use my right hand for boom and dipper, swing if necessary with my feet, and reach around behind me with my left hand and steer the front wheels while pushing with the hoe. Try that with one hand needed for the dipper and the other for the boom.)