> For XCode, compare it to Visual Studio (IMO, VS is light years ahead)

I agree. VS is the best IDE I've ever used by far.

> For Mac Native, compare to the .NET runtime (IMO .NET is better but it's not as clear cut)

The only thing I wish is that MS made it a bit easier to make .NET transparent for the user. Occasionally you need to install a version of the runtime when you install a new program, it'd be nice if that was all "built-in" and taken care of instead of adding another step to the installation.