In my mind, there really is no choice.  I've owned and used wading boots that were just felt and those that were felt with cleats.  For my fishing style, cleats win hands down.

The felt enthusiasts will claim, and they are correct, that felt does a better job on rock surfaces because it allows you to compress the felt over 100% of the surface when you walk on it.  In contrast, a boot that has both felt and cleats never really gets all the felt flat on the rock, but really just relies on the cleats to grab into small cracks.  A felt/cleat boot only gets a partial advantage from the felt.

Now think about where you use these.  The North Branch?  The Yawk? The thousand other streams and rivers whose primary characteristic is snot covered rocks that just wait to fling you headfirst into the cold water with one careless step?  Felt is useless in that environment.  It cannot grab onto snot.  The only thing that felt is good for is grabbing clean rocks - and it does a great job at that.  For snot, you need cleats.

Second item to consider.  How did you get to the river?  Did you have to walk anywhere?  Was it a substantial hike?  If so, you are wearing out your felt quickly.  It was never designed to be the bottom of a hiking boot.  In my opinion, a long hike accelerates the wear on your felt and causes you to have to replace it sooner - if your boot offers that capabilitly.  Cleats and felt are not much better when you think about it.  While the cleats are providing the traction once you get into the river, the felt still takes a beating on the hike in.  For that reason, I have abandoned the cleat/felt combination and have evolved to cleats/rubber.  I currently have the Simms Aquastealth boots with cleats, but there are others that offer the same cleat/rubber combination.

The rubber provides the extended hiking capability that you need if you are going to walk a mile to get to where you are going to fish.  Then, the cleats take over and go from there.

The only problem with cleats is that they get dull and slip or fail to grab into the smaller cracks as they wear down.  I think that Chota boots solved that problem with the user removable cleats.  With those, you can change them out when they get rounded and dull.  When I wear out my Simms, I'm going to try a pair of those. I did a quick search and it looks like they have models that start around 75 bucks.  That's not a bad investment when compared to broken bones!