I’ve driven both in the same area’s and diff does have more traction. I’ll say this as well if/when I get the Talon even that our DLX Pioneer has more traction. With a true diff lock EVERY tire spins at exactly the same rate, it’s not allowing slip, and slip is not traction. Keep hearing it’s the same from some but it’s not. I4wd tends to hunt a little more for traction and I’ve seen it under limited traction situations. Slick hill climbs and crawling over wet logs especially.
One weekend a few friends and I did a few things just to test it. Easiest way is to put one front tire on a skinny tree, especially if wet, and try to drive one tire up. Diff will do it easily but I4wd will eventually tear off bark and slip off once it dies get traction. That held true any rig with diff or not we tried.
Now with that said I4wd does allow much easier turning and and high speed maneuvering. Basically I look at it like both have positives and negatives but someone saying one is better for every situation is incorrect.