It's not that I don't like handdrawn sprites. But it's a lot of work to animate them because every state has to be predrawn. Most programmers can program but can't draw decent sprites in a acceptable speed. That's why i'd use 3d-characters that i can create myself. It's hard to find a artist that is good enough and sticks to project for months without beeing paid.

But if you know artists that are willing to join you are lucky and there is no reason for not using sprites. Like you said: It's a lot easier to program and if the artist is good it even looks better.

-lith