I had a Yeti ASR and now a Salsa Spearfish, they are both light-ish short travel (XC if you want to say it) bikes with similar design of suspension. I swapped most of the built-kit over so only wheels/frame/fork are different.
The Yeti was a very good climber, the Salsa is better.
The Yeti was a very impressive descender, the Salsa is better/quicker but not quite as much fun.
Both of these things are down to the wheels, i have noticed i can just point it where i want and it will go over almost everything in its path, the Yeti could do this to a point but often ran out of traction/grip.
Now of course the Yeti was designed as an outandout XC race bike while the Salsa was designed as an Endurance bike, and they state in the blurb it may not be as quick handling over short distance but will be steady easy to ride even when tired. Id agree with this also, its a lot nicer to ride when im shattered than the Yeti, but then you do lose some of the fun when your fresh.
Does this mean all 29er’s arnt fun? unlikely, just as it donst mean all 26er’s arnt easy to ride when your shattered. Horses for courses.