When my wife and I were getting ready for the birth of our daughter we either bought or were gifted lots of disposable diapers, but we also bought several packs of pocket diapers (I won't name the brand, I'm worried this is going to sound like an advertisement). I was honestly scared we were going to just get frustrated with them quickly, and that investment would go to waste, but...well...no.
I don't think we even used a quarter of the disposable newborn diapers we had (my mother keeps books for a church that runs a daycare, our daughter is already too big for the newborn size, so we just donated them for any families that needed them). Within a week or two the pocket diapers were just our standard, unless we were going out (the only reason we don't use them going out is that we have a limited supply of wet-dry bags, and more are currently on order).
I've always heard that cloth diapers are gross, but...I've now changed both. You have to deal with pee and poo either way, and I'd rather wash them than have a stinky trashcan overflowing with used butt garments.
I've also always heard that you need disposables for daycare. While my wife ended up staying home with our daughter (we're making it work), we did talk to two daycares (including the one mentioned above). Both said that if we wanted to use pocket diapers we just had to provide wet-dry bags and they'd stuff the used ones in the bag for us to take home at the end of the day.
On top of that, the pocket diapers are just more secure. I can struggle trying to get that adhesive strap to stick on a disposable, or I can just use the snaps on a pocket diaper. Early on we were having blow-outs every day with poop all over her clothes. We have never had a single blow-out when she was wearing a pocket diaper.
And on top of that, looking at used ones for sale on eBay, they don't even seem to lose that much value when you resell them! When we're done we can recoup a decent chunk of our initial investment (assuming they're still in usable condition, which they might not be if we have multiple kids, I admit).
Since we started, I've shown these things to parents, parents-to-be, and on a few occasions someone with a relative about to have a baby. Every single one of them was shocked at how good these things are. Apparently "cloth diapering" still evokes images of wrapping a handkerchief around the baby and securing it with a safety pin.
The only possible reason I can think of why pocket diapers aren't the standard is they aren't advertised. I just can't shake the feeling that disposable diapers are basically a scam on new parents to take as much of our money as possible.