Back when I first started cubing in 2012, I watched some cubing YouTube videos back then and I remember seeing videos about stickerless cubes being illegal, at the time I was just using some early Rubik's brand so was not very fast and wasn't really getting much faster but I did take some interest in cubing competitions, I watched Feliks Zemdegs 5.66 world record single back then.

I remember seeing videos advising people not to get stickerless cubes because if they got used to them then it would be difficult going into a competition where they were not allowed.

This changed in 2013 when it was announced that the regulations would be updated to allow stickerless cubes, the reason that they were banned in the first place was essentially on a misunderstanding, it was thought that a cuber could receive extra information as the colour of the opposite side can be just about visible on a stickerless cube. The thing is that even if this is the case, it is an incredibly minor advantage and it is also available to everyone, it is not as if stickerless cubes are out of the reach of certain cubers.

By 2019 when I started speedcubing.org, stickerless cubes had become the norm and that has only continued to cement itself, when I started speedcubing.org, I made the decision that for most products, I would only stock the stickerless version. These days at competitions, it is very rare to see cubes with stickers, especially among top cubers, most cube brands don't even bother releasing a stickered version for most cubes they design.

Stickerless cubes are just a bit more durable, they look nicer and maybe they do give a very very small advantage (that essentially everyone takes advantage of now)