The Radeon driver is still, despite it's faults, a way smoother experience then the fglrx driver - notably so if you want to use a compositing window manager (support still missing from AMDs proprietary end).
Yep, never ever used fglrx after radeon got usable. Allows me to upgrade kernels whenever I want and now a days it runs cool, has UVD supported and 3D/2D performance is quite decent for desktop use.
