If you look at my signature, I own two cues with steel joints and two with ivory, one flat faced and one piloted.
I switched to ivory joints 3 years ago and regret no doing so 40 years ago.
It's important, in my opinion, to also use ivory ferrules when you play with a ivory joint cue.
The sound is admittedly different.........then the feel.......your fingers on the wrap get this sense of everything.
Hit the cue ball off center or over-stroke the cue ball and you feel it. Stroke it smooth and you feel absolutel nothing.......it's like the feedback on a baseball bat........you get this feel and rythym to your stroke......and when you start getting a shooting cadence, any change becomes immediately more perceptible and you know what caused it .....you could feel it in the delivery & finish of your stroke.
Steel is indestructible but also pretty insensitive. A flat faced ivory joint with wood faced shafts gives the best feel and next is a piloted ivory joint. Since I own a Paul Mottey cue, and Paul is famous for making what's considered to be the best piloted ivory joints, and a Tim Scruggs cue that has a flat faced ivory joint (radial pin) with wood faced shafts, I feel I have the best comparison to make of these two different types of ivory joints.
Admittedly the Mottey cue plays lights out......weighs 18.4 ozs and it feels like a your fingers are part of the Cortland Linen wrap......you know when the stroke is a pure hit/delivery.......Paul does make the best piloted ivory cues which is why they cost so damn much..........but the Scruggs cue (18.25 ozs.) gets the edge in playability/feel department......OMG........the only way to explain it is when you aren't pleased with the results even when the object ball gets pocketed but you're still in control of the table...........my Scruggs cue tells you why.......you can feel what was wrong with your last stroke and so you know what to adjust.....the cue just gives you different feedback.
That's what I can tell you about steel (My Runde Schon '85 & Palmer) and ivory (Mottey - piloted and Scuggs - flat faced) cue joints.