It’s about drawcalls, One Mesh with 5 Materials = 5 Drawcalls, multiply by however many Meshes, One Mesh with 1 Material = 1 Drawcall per mesh, this is why there is instanced meshes for stuff like foliage that have many of the same mesh and materials.
So yeah math wise:
10 soldiers with 1 mesh and 1 material = 10 Drawcalls,
10 soldiers with 1 mesh and 5 materials = 50 Drawcalls.
There is also a limit on how many textures per Material if you develop for Mobile for example, so having all that stored in one big texture is easier on the performance for loading.
And I’d say the “depends” is less about the performance and more about “depends if you care” in the context of what you are building and how much you and your intented audience will care 