[jrochkind1]

I think it still depends on the nature of the data and your questions about it, and median is often the better choice if you have to pick only one.

[hnfong]

“It depends” is always right but which function is better for arbitrary, unknown data?

At least the arithmetic mean is fine for Gaussian distributions, and coneys a sense about the data even on non-Gaussian ones. but the median doesn’t even work at all on some common distributions like scores of very difficult exams (where median=0)

For the mean, at least every data point contributes to the final value.

Just my 2c