Lots of ISPs now hate torrent traffic and throttle it. FTP gets a free pass.
Torrents are more technically friendly, but right now, FTP is more socially
friendly.

I suppose this depends on your ISP...so look into it. I generally use torrents for distro CDs and larger applications with great success. I typically see downloads of 600KB/s++ on both client and server side. I had Cox Premier cable modem and host @ ServerBeach whom I happen to know does no throttling on torrents, but will forward a cease and desist faster than you can spell MPAA if you are sharing such content.

FTP is simpler in that regard...all depends on your needs.