I have used many different shoe/pedal systems over the years when I was commuting, a daily 60 km round trip. One of the earliest was a pair of Avocet touring shoes paired up with toe clips and straps. For those not familiar with these shoes, they had a moulded in slot for pedal retention in the shoe sole. They had fairly stiff soles due to a steel shank in the instep of the shoe. I rode mine enough to break the steel shank, replaced it with a heavy piece of sheet steel, and then rode those shoes to extinction. I tried other systems. I acquired a set of Time TWT(Time walking technology) shoes and pedals for a very good price. These were single sided pedals that used an interface very similar to Time's ATAC mountain bike pedals. The downside was that the shoes, cleats and pedals were totally proprietary, nothing else worked with them. The shoes were comfortable, but not stiff enough. I rode them until one of the pedals retention bars failed.
For a couple of years I used a pair of Shimano shoes designed for SPD pedals which had a very smooth sole along with toe clips. Worked fine. eventually I bought some SPD style pedals that required cleats. I ran through a couple of sets of them(my commute averaged 9000 km per year). I don't commute now, but if I had to the Look Quartz pedals on my touring bike would be my choice. I have a pair of DMT shoes that look like casual sport shoes, They have almost smooth soles, they could be used with toe clips and straps equally as well as with my Quartz pedals