They do different things better and if anything compliment each other, hence why it's not an either/or in my side. Neale is the contested release from stoppage king, Merrett is the second/third link of the chain i.e perfect gut running outside midfielder with polish.
Bont is another contested possession/clearance beast, but also heavily involved in all three of goals, assists and score involvements. Petracca is the clear midfield king for those latter qualities.
Butters doesn't quite read as high on any particular one off metric (very good for most though especially scoreboard impact), but really is Port's engine and had those stack of BOGs to assert them as a force. He's faded a little and Rozee grown so it's getting closer between these two. There's room for both if there's like 8 or 9 midfielders in the team (likely) but not if there's 5 or 6 IMO.
