Chopsticks Versus Forks

The two main utensil traditions in the civilized world are forks and chopsticks. Spoons were independently developed by both East and West. Was it independent? I think so. It is true that knives are only set out for the diners in the West. However, they are only properly used for slicing meat and hard vegetables. Using knives as pushers for loading food onto the fork has always been wrong. Since the slicing work gets done in the kitchen in East Asia, it doesn't matter whether knives are used at the table or not.

So which are better, forks or chopsticks? How you might answer, of course depends heavily on which you grew up using. If you are accustomed to forks then you will find forks easier for almost everything. But there are clearly areas in which an impartial alien (or robot) would prefer chopsticks to forks or vice-versa. Let's examine.

Chopsticks are better than forks for eating:

Croutons
Lettuce
Individual peas
Cherry tomatoes
Chicken skin
Bread
Whitebait

Forks are better than chopsticks for eating:

Rice (how did this happen)
Asparagus
Jell-O
Liver
Ice cream
Pie

Neither forks nor chopsticks are at all adequate for eating:

Noodles
Chicken legs
Very flaky fish
Full-sized tomatoes

I think it is interesting to note here that the main staple foods of the world (bread, noodles, rice) are very hard (comparatively) for the people who eat them natively. Why is that?