Colour can be a crutch too
Almost all my photographs are unposed snapshots, but one thing I am now consciously trying to think about as I take them is their formal composition and the use of space. I find B+W easier for this because in colour it is much harder to avoid distractions. Shooting people with minimual make up is harder in colour for the same reason - brides always spot the insignificant pimple in the colour proofs, not the B+W ones.
On the other hand there are all those stock shots which rely on bright colours to sustain interest in a cliched image. Viva la Velvia.
It's an established stereotype that art school photography students think anything in black and white must be cool and deep. Mind you, here in Sweden that's been temporarily superceeded by very desaturated work. I like it all - well, I look at it all.
There is some very high quality straightforward colour photography of cathedrals and other ancient buildings in the guides and booklets put out by the Pitkin Press and HMSO. Now that polychrome decoration is largely absent from the masonry there are some wonderful subtle colour schemes which interact well with the formality of the architecture. When I think of typical cathedral pics I think of these rather than the older generation of ultra-large format platinotypes. Both share the property that they almost never include people, so I'll restrain my urge to enthuse.