I'm more in the camp of "why wear gloves", although I'll put them on sometimes to complete the cycling costume. That's not very often.
I'll admit that I've torn the glove fabric on a crash so it saved some skin. On the other hand I've had more crashes with no scrapes on my hands but road rash elsewhere, so if I wanted to wear something extra for protection it would logically be on my knees or elbows. Maybe hips. I just don't see the logic of skipping 3 or 4 down the list for safety equipment. But the style, I can understand.
Keeping my hands warm, even with fingerless gloves, that makes perfect sense also.