I never succeeded in strip mining
I think so. On the one hand, you uncover much more blocks when mining than in the cave (and find other resources as well), on the other hand you first have to find such a deep cave. You also get lost in a cave faster.
Caves cover more surface, I would recommend to strip mines and when hitting a mine, search through them completely and then continue.
I actually find the most about strip mining…
If you do it right, strip mining is very effective. I always do it at level 12. There's hardly any risk of falling in lava and you can dig completely inattentively. Statistically, this may not be the best height, but has given me a lot of diamonds in 10 years of Minecraft.
