Is one approach better than the other? It depends, though I will say that a dedicated converter will always outshine a basic voltage divider, and they are a lot less fiddly to use with a breadboard. A voltage divider is cheaper to build but only works in a direct direction (you'll need two voltage divider circuits to perform bi-directional I/O). They also have relatively high electrical impedance, meaning that there is a practical delay that occurs between the variable resistance changing and the measurable voltage changing. This delay is enough to make a simple voltage divider impractical for circuits where there is fast switching between high and low states. A dedicated logic-level converter overcomes these limitations, plus they are multi-channel, bi-directional, faster, and more efficient.