"Better" is subjective, and is pretty much up to the particular dojo.
Is a Thai roundkick better than a karate kick? How can we ever measure this? In any fight its the GUY throwing the kick, not the kick itself that decides who wins the match. Crocop doesn't throw a Thai style kick, yet he's very effective.
I wouldn't look to Karate to improve my hands, but for all other aspects of standup striking I would totally be comfortable studying Kyokushin Karate.
If it wasn't Kyokushin, you probably wasted your time.
If you haven't learned it from a hardcore Korean(men who would be in their 40s to 50s) or Japanese karateka, you probably wasted your time.
If you learned it from americans who were out of shape, you probably wasted your time.
I wrote this on another post, but if you are not going to distinguish between "karate" and "full-contact karate", you are probably wasting your time.
"It is about the school, not the art"
Yeah, no shit, and the amount of Karate schools leads to more mcDojo's thus they get more payouts...
Very simple.
Good karate is hard to find in the sea of McDojos and watered down karate. but that is not the fault of karate itself but of the power/money hungry assholes who run the school without caring about the skill of the students. That kind of assholes will start finding their ways into BJJ and other arts/sports aswell.
While I wont go into details about advantages and disadvantages for different techniques (a impossible task since there are so many techniques and so many completely different styles), I will give what I think is one of the best things about karate. How many active old (50-60+) boxers, thaiboxers or wrestlers do you know of? not competing but still training (not only teaching or coaching but actualy doing the stuff) their art? In most sports when you no longer can compete you quit. in karate there are always more to do and more to learn, even if you no longer can compete full contact with the up and coming youngsters.
Other than that it is mostly just a different way to get to the same point as most other styles/arts.
I can tell you the big PROBLEM with karate quickly enough though. It takes a longer time to learn than a pure fighting sport since it involves more aspects and is not immediately focused on sport sparring. 3 years to learn is not enough to become good. especialy if you spend the 3 years jumping from school to school and not sticking with it.
As a side note. Chuck Norris dont do karate, he does a hybride style based on TKD its just that when he learned it it was still called korean karate. Ed parker kenpo is not karate -it is kenpo. I dont know much of the last style you mention, but since you yourself heard that it is a McDojo.....
Seriously, is Sam Pie still on the UG?
there are alot of good kyokushin/shidokan guys who do the bare knuckle stuff.They do lack in the hands (compared to boxers)department but overall a very effective martial art.The better schools bring in other arts such as boxing to help their fighters.Andy hug and the brazilian guy (i forget his name),and mushasi have a kyokushin beggining as do alot of european fighters.It is a good base to start fighting from.the diffrence in schools come down to preferences.There are diffrent styles seen in bjj schools.Same goes for diffrent karate schools.And karate did become a generic term for alot of diffrent styles. Nowadays certain schools have have favorite techniques or positions that make them better or worse .And if the schools don't promote sparring then most likely they aren't very good.Without sparring you can't get the timing needed to compete against other styles.And if all your doing is doing horse stances and blocks then the karate guy is not being very realistic.And when he fights anyone w/ good hands will most likely get murdered.The guy that started Shidokan was cross trained back then (not grappling).He did Judo,wado ryu?kendo,kickboxing and kyokushikai karate.He was the #1 student of master Masutatsu Oyama.Nicknamed the kyokushin tiger.and they crossed trained w/alot of thai fighters.
"Anyone who doesnt respect real karate is BJJ nuthugging. Sure there are a LOT of BS schools out there. the same will eventually happen to BJJ, it is just a matter of time."
i doubt it - in BJJ you're forced to give yourself a fairly good "reality check" every day, which discourages delusional fantasises and inefficient technique.
there is still "blueblet syndrome", but it's much less severe, and more grounded in reality than the "deth touch" schools.