“The rpc style is limited to very simple XSD types such as String and Integer”. Well that’s not a limitation of the rpc style. Using “encoded” allows you to specify the types of the XML directly. rpc just specifies that you use the operation name when invoking a web service.

“However, the rpc style’s SOAP messages are easier to look at and understand.”
I’d say that’s not true either. Encoded messages are harder to look at because of the type information. document/literal/wrapped and rpc literal style messages will probably look exactly the same. document/literal messages will even look simpler since you leave out the operation name.

Jax-WS RI (since Java 6 and above I think) uses document/literal/wrapped by default.