Migration Assistant or Fresh Install?

Getting ready to upgrade my iMac. I'd like to get some thoughts on using Migration Assistant for the new iMac VS. starting from scratch and reinstalling mountains of software, preferences, etc.

My home desktop computer is also my editing bay. I have used Migration Assistant probably since 2007, and have upgraded my computer every 12-18 months since then. No telling how much stuff is still lingering around from 2007.

So... make a new clone of this machine and save days of rebuilding time or are clones super reliable?