The RAF cape leather gloves are indeed super-grippy and in the more sharp-edged military-format cockpits they do provide protection from various monor but disproportionately bloody scrapes and gouges that I otherwise seem to incur, without making the wearer excessively clumsy. They also keep the cold off to a certain degree. For me they're worth wearing in a Pitts / Moth / Yak type environment for local flights, but in the Archer, where I'm spending a lot more time twiddling knobs, I go gloveless.
When used on the above mentioned aerobatic types, they will also quickly pick oil stains, but I gather a certain patina is expected in these matters (shades of the USAAC's "50-mission crushed caps"!)