It's a texture thing. I prefer ribbon-cut noodles (they're flat) over "the tubes" or other decorative shapes.

Now a funny a hybrid is bucatini. It's a long tubed noodle with a very narrow hole down the middle. Sauce latches onto that like wow.

And pasta itself can taste different depending on how it is made. Fresh VS dry. Egg-based, wheat-based, tomato-based, spinach-based, chestnut-based, etc. And then al dente comes into play as well.

Pasta is a vessel, but cultures approach it in different ways. The "American" way would be to cook some pasta of some shape and then lump a bunch of sauce over top. The Italian way is to finish the pasta in the sauce - what ends up on the plate is mostly pasta, not sauce. Different balance