What I have always found to be the greatest strength of cold approach is the ability to meet women and create a genuine abundance mentality. If you rely solely or primarily on social circle, the number of women you meet is very fixed, the chances she's been intimate with friends/people you know can create complicated relationships and you're also competing with other men on a different value system (it's very difficult to hook up and maintain space and distance between women because they WILL talk amongst each other and create drama because of residual feelings).
There's a lot more reputation management, especially on the women's side, and they're going to more readily try to slot you in a provider role, because since you have mutual friends and acquaintances, if people find out you guys are just hooking up, she risks being labeled as a slut, so if she does like you, she'll bide her time, keep things more platonic at first, or do things to try and slot you into a boyfriend role. That also means she'll be a lot more scrutinizing and judgmental in her choice of men, and will naturally pit you against the men she knows around you. (which can be good or bad, depending on how sharp your game is and how well put together you are and your lifestyle design)
If you cold approach, you come in as an outsider whose value is in flux in her eyes, and you become the determinant of your own value in her eyes based on how you present yourself and your interactions with her initially.
There's pros and cons to every medium of dating, if you will, but I find that cold approach (at least in a large city) can yield you the best results with less hassle and the less chances that the women you date know each other and create drama for you.