Difference between using assert and pattern matching in unit test

It appears hat [at least] three people whose opinions I respect don’t agree with me, lol. Is the error message that much better? I feel like seeing an assertion failure in a setup could cause a red herring situation when running all tests. It would be a pretty minor red herring, of course, and furthermore, this is all pretty low stakes. Really my preference here comes down to being able to identify the important assertions with as little brainpower as possible.