I adore batiks ... not just the yummyness of the colors, but the fabric itself is typically a tighter weave and the fabric has much less fray. The work I like to do the most is with small pieces, which means the fabric is handled a lot more, which means more fray as you continue to work with it. When I work with regular prints by the time I am finished with the piece I have strings from frayed edges EVERYWHERE. Not so much with batiks. Batiks also seem to hold starch better and stay crisper.
My only complaint about batiks is that I can't find enough in grey. I need/want several shades of grey in "tonal" (no "print") batiks. I don't trust shopping online as I can't tell if they are true grey - some have beige, blue, or green tones which I don't want.