15 people in a tiny room free of charge can be more valuable than 40 people in a 100-seat venue who paid cover charge.
You can play only one set if you have a screen to do YouTube karaoke as set two, with the right 15 people in the room.
People are more likely to remember and buy your eventual project if they come to something like this, than any amount of advertising you spend toward them.
Bringing little digital cameras to pass around the audience might get you better videos of the performance than anyone's phone.
What's "better" is a function of the range of experiences you can make for your bandmates and your people.