Maintenance of wires is so much easier than maintenance of pipes. Assuming the electricity is not from a fossil fuel source, distribution of electric heat will almost always be the superior choice (in my humble opinion).

But in many jurisdictions, green electricity is more expensive than fossil fuels. So now you’re looking at pipes to houses to deliver heat, or pipes to house to deliver gas – and the optimization problem becomes less obvious.

In a hypothetical Mars colony where you can clean-sheet design heating and cooling, it’ll almost certainly not be piped centralized heat. And based on the Soviet experience, it probably was never a good choice :/