The practicality debate depends on the context. The Jedi had reason to favor soresu in the 1000 years of peace and apparent extinction of the Sith given the lack of lightsaber-wielding opponents. Even when the Sith return you're more frequently facing soldiers and droids.
Philosophically soresu's defensive nature probably better symbolizes the Jedi code.
I never understood the "soresu is better against blasters" argument - the sets of techniques needed to defend against projectile weaponry would seemingly be totally distinct from the techniques used in single combat anyway, so why do you have to fuse the two? What about, say, djem so or juyo, who weren't abandoned like makashi but whose primary characteristics were equally unrelated to deflecting blasters?