One thing NERDTree does that netrw doesn't (IIRC, haven't looked very deeply into this) is open files you select in a different window than the one that contains the file listing. I happen to find that convenient, YMMV, of course.
Also, there doesn't seem to be a way to tell netrw to create a vertical split rather than a horizontal split, which is inconvenient on modern wide screen monitors.
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:Vex