The CREATE INDEX statement is used to do exactly what its name says, it creates an index. But when you say CREATE UNIQUE INDEX, you are doing more than that; you are enforcing a business rule that involves uniqueness.
I have a simple rule on this. Wherever possible business rules like uniqueness, check values, etc. should be part of the design of the table, and not enforced in an external object like an index.
So, rather than a unique index, I’d rather see a unique constraint on the underlying table.
But that’s where real life steps in. I see two scenarios that lead me to occasionally use CREATE UNIQUE INDEX.
Here’s a third: creating constraints can cause blocking issues. If you already have a large table and Enterprise Edition, creating a unique index can be an online operation (unless you have a clustered columnstore index on the table), but a unique constraint is always a blocking activity.