For decades I used cloth covered neoprene. When I got a little more serious with gaming I wanted to simply get a larger one of the same thing. Then I started looking at hard mouse pads....
Just for kicks I nabbed a double sided "Rocketfish" (OE relabelled) pad which had a "speed" and "control" side bonded to an aluminum plate. This particular pad was a travesty but it gave me an introduction to rigid pads with less friction. The rocketfish pad had rubber feet at the edges of the mousing surface which started to peel and get in the way. The aluminum core also had enough flex that it interfered with the surface staying flat when I rested my hand on it.
I returned the Rocketfish and talked the sales guy down on an "open box" Razer Destructor. Rediculously expensive, but I got it for almost half price, which just made it "expensive" instead. I loved this pad. Fast, smooth, large, fairly low friction, no feet, flat against your desk surface. The problem was that after about 9 months of "average guy" wear (not all gaming, not hardcore, I have a job and kids and I'm not at my home PC all day) I found that the friction was changing across the surface due to wear. Where the pad texture was starting to get smooth the mouse would drag more. Great surface (for me) but low durability.
During this time I tried an Icemat I-2 I got a good deal on. I have a problem with the may most sites, stores and manufacturers describe mouse pad properties. They'll call a pad "flat" with "good glide" and "smooth". Is the pad smooth? Or is it low friction? There were lots of good words about the glass Icemat so I thought I'd give it a try. This was indeed nice and smooth, and was very easy to make very small precise movements with (i.e. CAD, design, Photoshop) but I didn't enjoy it for regular use. There was too much friction and the mouse feet made a dragging noise that you could hear all over the main floor of the house when I moused around. It would resonate in the area under the pad enclosed by the feet and get amplified. A quality product but not for me.
I ended up with a Ratpadz XT. Dirt cheap, rigid, thick, strong, and rough texture but low friction. The rough texture was key for me in retaining some kind of feedback about how you were moving the mouse. You can feel the texture of the pad creating vibrations in the mouse but the material is low friction with most mouse feet so there isn't a lot of drag created while providing the feedback. This is completely opposite to the glass Icemat, where the frosted glass is smooth but has a fair bit of drag.
Going back to cloth coated neoprene feels like moving my mouse through mud now. At one point I was considering pads like the Steelseries Qck I think - large and simple cloth pads. I was also curious about the Steelseries anodized aluminum one but it was kind of pricey and I didn't want another Icemat fiasco.