air to air vs air to water, I've been reading mixed reviews Options

[enderswift]

the addition of pumps resevoirs and maintanance aside, why do alot of people say that air to air is better than air to water? I'd imagine that with air to water you can run ALOT less piping like the 3sgte. This is good because it means the tubo has to pressurize less piping before it gets to the engine. I.E less lag. Some people say water intercoolers run warmer but I dont see how. If you run the intercooler the way the gt4 has it, then route a radiator to the snout the heat exchange should be the same no? or is that the benefit of less piping is offset by a loss of efficiency?