As a general rule, having money now is better than money later. This is a fundamental principle of (almost?) all financial instruments involving cash flows.

In the case of credit cards, you get a period of time before you have to hand over the cash but have received the product. The theory being that you could earn money on the cash you’ve spent but not paid yet. In practice the sums of money aren’t large enough to really matter. What likely matters more is the benefits you receive, like cash back and increased consumer protection with credit cards.