Generally agree with 43I's summary but the thing I recall most about the slab wing models were how precisely they could be flown, and how good they were on the bush strips, given a bit of inventiveness with the manual flaps. I can't claim to be a great Piper fan (PA24/30 excepted!) but a PA28-180C is a handy thing for winning spot landing competitions, and other exercises where a bit of precision is needed. The other recollection is how noisy they are but that's as much due to vintage as anything else.
The taper wing variations did buy speed but, to me, robbed the Cherokee of a bit of character. Mind you, I think the same about the C172 evolution path. I wasn't around in the heyday of the earlier models but it's just an opinion I formed after flying some of the older aircraft.
In fairness though, our club operated an Archer II for many years and, for what it did, it was a pretty efficient and trouble-free aeroplane.