Plant Propagation by Cuttings in Water vs. Potting Soil

Some people swear by plant propagation in water. For taking cuttings of roses, I've always stuck with potting soil, but I thought I'd give a trial to cuttings in water instead. In this video, I compare cuttings of roses, hydrangea and figs under both methods. Quite aside from all the algae I had to deal with, the main issue was with how much quicker the ones in potting soil began to develop roots - could it have to do with more access to air? I applied rooting hormone (liquid, dip n grow) to both to try to speed roots (or at least callus)