People's tastes vary so much. I much prefer the S&S bars to the Exante ones, but you will see a lot of posts here saying the opposite.
The most important criterion for me is "what will keep me on the straight and narrow", and there are a few elements to that:
Which ones can I stomach for the next 3 months? If I hate the taste, I'm more likely to stop.
On the other hand.... which ones do I like too much? (I once ate 6 S&S bars in one go, on a bad day)
Which ones keep me from feeling hungry? For me it is the sweet ones. The savory ones like soups get my mouth watering and tummy rumbling. Somehow my brain/stomach expects a savoury portion to be larger, so the soup doesn't leave me feeling satisfied. Also the soups cool down, so you have to finish them quickly. I sip my lunchtime shake slowly between about 12 and 3pm.
Which ones am I less embarrassed by in public? Soups can be passed off as cup-a-soups at work. Bars are easier to eat if I am out all day.
Can I eat all the ingredients? This is important for me as I have coeliac disease and so have to have gluten free meals (most shakes, S&S bars and some W8 soups)
Everyone's tastes are different, and a VLCD is a VLCD at the end of the day: 600 - 800 calories, plus all the day's nutritional requirements. So I feel free to mix & match.
Sorry - long rambling way to say "it depends..."