Given the choice (as at Abingdon recently) I'll take the grass for landing and the hard surface for takeoff.
Reasons
Grass puts less stress on the u/c when landing. The spinup of the wheels is slower and it is MUCH more forgiving of sideways drift.
Hard surface gives better acceleration for take-off however this may be a bit of a red herring. As the speed builds the a/c gets lighter and the additional drag on grass probably diminishes so the real effect may be less than expected.
Grass requires a little more of a commodity some pilots seem reluctant to exercise, judgement. If it has been raining it takes a lot longer to dry out. Braking shouldn't really be mjuch of an issue. If you are having to stand on the brakes, whether on grass or concrete you are either a) Flying the approach badly or b) chancing your arm by going into something that's really too short for you.
b) is unlikely unless you have a displaced threshold or an obstructed approach because if your approach was good and you had to stand on the brakes you ain't going to get out again with the same load.
Fully accept that if it is muddy it might not be a good idea to cover the wheel bays and squat switches with gunk and there is the case of the Robin that caught fire due to dried grass in the spat being ignited by heat from the brake. Against that there are quite a few "hard" runways with a loose surface that can be thrown up.