I prefer cotton towels on leather, MF on everything else. There was a post here many years back IIRC by JudyB from one of the UK leather products companies where she said that cotton is better for leather since MF is harder on leather finishes over time due to the MF grabbing the leather on a micro level. This would imply that MF can actually clean better but at the cost of being harsher over time. If I need to do a deep clean on leather I will use MF but if the leather is kept clean and moisturized with a damp cotton towel regularly, as mine is, I don’t find the need to scrub it with a brush and MF very often.
As for vinyl and plastic surfaces, MF works way better to remove dust, oils from fingers, and the like.