As Jackson says just his opinions.
I’m now riding a powerful castle based board, and a powerful vesc based board. I set them both up with the same remote.
The vesc based board is IMO more awkward for handling the power. it’s got less fidelity (mushy and runs on) I suspect it’s the more indirect current control relative to dutycyle control because of the pid loop. but that could be tuned so jury’s still out.
On the street. the castle based board feels awesome. I’m never thinking that it’s “not smooth” or having trouble setting my speed.
They are definitely different. I’m taking the time to get a feel for both now. Otherwise, there’s a familiarity bias there. riders just hate what they aren’t used to. others just have an axe to grind.
The real feature to miss from vesc on RC stuff is voltage and temperature based current ramping as a signal to the rider that it’s time to save the hardware. RC stuff your choice is avoid killing the hardware on your own or enable cutouts and kill the rider. 
(though hobbywing may have some of that? )
The second is the telemetry ecosystem.