Better? I guess that will depend. As pointed out, less reagent is needed under acidic conditions. While hydroxide may be a better nucleophile, I don't know that is a rate limiting step. Is it?
Just for the sake of pointing out how it may not be, permanganate can be used to form a diol or to cleave an alkene. This is how I have analyzed these two reactions. These are typically both run under basic conditions. If cold, a diol can result, while hot results in cleavage. The first step is to form a cyclic manganate ester. I rationalize that at higher temperatures hydroxide can undergo an electrocyclic reaction which cleaves the carbon-carbon bond. I also reason that at low temperatures and in the presence of hydroxide, it can attack the manganate ester resulting in its cleavage. Although hydroxide could also reproduce alkoxide leading to oxidation, it appears to not do so. (I am not saying it could not do so, but rather if alkoxide lead to a faster oxidation that alcohol formation, thus method would not work well.) For this reason, I don't know that basic conditions are necessarily better or not.