Is there a benefit of using stateless JWT over SHA256 hash for API tokens?

Does it make sense to use stateless JWT (without persistent storage) over plain SHA256?

Example scenario:

1. User logs in

2. User token generated as follows:
   a. JWT.encode(userId, ‘secret’)
   or
   b. SHA256(userId + ‘secret’)

3. Client app sends request with userId and token

4. Request is verified via:
   a. JWT.decode(token, ‘secret’), then checking that resulting JWT.userId compared to request userId
   or
   b. SHA256(userId + ‘secret’), then checking that resulting hash compared to request token

JWT allows token expiration, however beyond that I don’t see any benefit?