Octane is supposed to be cleaner than Activator (in all its forms), with more reaction to the dry. With that comes things like "doesn't handle carrydown as well" and "less forgiving" and "speed sensitive". Just the nature of ball reactions, compare any two covers that have differences like Activator and Octane. Even PK18 vs Activator.
Preference is a different story, of course.
SH