Caporegime
I had the AW8 before returning in and from my personal experience it wasn’t the case at all. It’s probably more to do with how often the Garmin logs data and the amount of in depth analysis it can provide too.
I’m not knocking the Apple Watch but the way I see it is if you want in depth tracking and a wider range of metrics on your health and recovery go for a Garmin, if you want a smartphone on your wrist go for an Apple. Can’t go wrong with either it’s just personal preference and what works for you
Yea Garmin provide a lot more metrics that is for sure. The point you made about the sensors not being as good I found odd since the Apple watch HR sensor is very accurate, better than the Garmin. Garmin sleep tracking isn't that good which it uses to calculate things like recovery and body battery.
All those metrics are great but personally unless you action them it's just noise. In some cases it can have a negative effect on your training if it reports sub optimal data.