The preference between Wyeast, White Labs, Lalvin, Safale, Fermentis, etc, etc. is just that - preference! They all make great brewing yeast, and all have their place, especially with the liquid brands (Wyeast, White Labs) when it comes to that one strain you may want that is proprietary (for me, these are often Wyeast's 3711 French Saison, and White Labs 775 English Cider, as well as the Wyeast Dry Mead strain).
Dry yeast is definitely more convenient, for me at least...its often far easier to rehydrate a packet or two than making a starter, with my schedule! When I'm using a neutral strain for a beer, I'm far more likely now to use US-05 than WLP001 or 1056.
Yes, you absolutely should make a starter with liquid yeast! But while dry yeast does have a higher cell count per retail unit, you may still definitely need more than one packet of dry yeast to get the proper pitch rate for many meads. Use a pitch rate calculator!
Edit: to answer the question in the OP, I really like the Wyeast Dry Mead strain as a neutral, steady, high ABV tolerant fermenter, and have made a majority of my meads with it. I also use 71B a fair bit, so I also use Lalvin. I have used White Labs Sweet mead strain successfully as well, but have not really tried the much maligned Wyeast Sweet Mead strain. I am a huge fan of WLP 775 for any apple ferments (cider, cyser, etc...)