Well, sure. But tone is subjective. We're kinda talking about 'what's your favorite chocolate'? Dark, semi-sweet, milk, white.......
To me, what makes the Darkside better is the affect of the buffer. I am not an EE, but I have been a gigging musician since video killed the radio stars, so I know what I like. The buffer adds a certain 'pop' to the signal, but not a boost that gets squashed as you run through the trannies. Overall, there is less 'harshness', which many have described as less 'brightness'. I rarely use or enjoy a treble boost, so the Darkside tone is my cup of tea.
I like something between milk and dark chocolate. I would say again, I have never built a muff that I didn't like.
I also played crappier guitars when I built the Darkside. So maybe the additional processing helped my tone at the time.
To be honest, tone is still in the hands. You can make any muff sound good with any rig and any guitar on any given day.