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Great question, @BobbyJ
Most people play power chords because they are easier to fret. Who doesn’t want to form a 2 note chord instead of a full barre chord?? If you are already comfortable playing full barre chords then this is not an issue.
That being said, let me add to this wonderful discussion by saying that the full chord adds a flavor that a power chord just isn’t capable of. A full chord is made up of the 1-3-5 notes of the corresponding scale degrees, where the power chord only has the 1-5 (It’s missing the 3). Well the 3 is what differentiates a major chord from a minor chord, and a sus2 from a sus4. All of these variations of the 3 note within the chord act as superb “flavorings” in the emotions and feeling of the song recipe. So wherever that’s important, you’d need the 3 (the full chord). Hope that made some kind of sense.
D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D (Dmajor scale)
1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7-8/1
D Power chord: D-A
(1-5)
Dmajor chord: D-F#-A
(1-3-5)
Dminor chord:D-F-A
(1-b3-5)
Dsus2 chord: D-E-A
(1-2-5)
Dsus4 chord: D-G-A
(1-4-5)