Direct Descent or Munar Rendezvous? The results are in
Still fairly new to the game but I've spent a couple of days trying to compare the two most common ascent modes, making everything as cheap as possible for missions involving three Kerbals in a Mk.1-3 command pod. With the lunar rendezvous only two reached the surface so William had to stay in space and wait for them. Conclusion: Apollo missions are certainly cheaper and lighter but they are also very annoying, especially for new players, and the delta-V requirements took a lot more working out.
In the end both craft probably had about 200m/s more than they really needed in the final/landing stage but otherwise it was quite tight. The LR mode could probably be made even cheaper by using two Mk.1 Lander cans instead of a Mk.2 so you could get to the cost down to about 3/4ths the price of the direct landing (if cost mattered).