Yeah you’re missing out. Whether you care about what you’re missing out on? that’s your call.
I like my hardtail because its raw unplugged riding, it punishes you for each mistake but feels so sweet when you get going nicely, and it reminds me of messing about in the woods when I was a kid. I like my FS as it lets me get away with stupid stuff I’d never dream of on my HT. pop off that lip into a sketchy mess of braking bumps, roots and rocks? Ok. You have a bit more buffer between ‘ambitious line choice’ and ‘eating dirt’, it promotes silliness and speed, both are fun.
And yes as mentioned you’ll then hop back onto your HT and sometimes inadvertently hit that silly line or boost off those roots just before a fading out drop and you’ll realise that its actually alright.. but you wouldn’t have done it before.

I’d hire a good FS for a day or talk a shop into letting you take one for a demo. You’re never going to qualify it by saying its *faster *less technically challenging *more techy… but you might just find it quite fun.

The fun is in the increased speed!

For me it’s marginal on those sorts of trails. Or maybe I’m just getting old and not prepared to push the pace enough to feel like I’m getting to my limits on a FS in the same way I can on a HT when riding for fun. If I was racing it’d be a different story and it’d be FS all the way, but for fun I’ll stick to my HT.

I went back to hardtails as I was getting to speeds on the full suss where the results of getting it a bit wrong were getting dangerous (1 wrist, 12 weeks out). I’m a bit slower downhill, but quicker up so it averages out.

Yes, you might have more control, stability and grip… but where’s the fun in that

Cos Strava used to say 25mph on one of my descents now it says 30mph…it’s fun

I must admit that I share brassneck’s concern on some trails at least.

However that’s not that common. I love being able to whip through a corner that’s so rocky that on a HT you’d have to scrub off most of your speed and oof/urgh your way through.

Although to be fair my only HT now is fully rigid – on a 160mm slack hardcore HT it might be different.. never ridden one of those.

Northwind
The biggest difference is grip imo.

I’d agree, but not in terms of “absolute” grip, but the ability to maintain that grip under a wider range of conditions.

My big travel FS can be sent with some abandon into rough features, and is forgiving enough to be able to take an ill advised, panicky grab of brake for example, whereas the same thing on my fully committed HT leads to me eating dirt!

Aye, that’s well described.

So basically what you’re all saying is that it’s not my fault I keep bouncing off my bike when I’m following my riding colleagues 🙂

I’d agree, but not in terms of “absolute” grip, but the ability to maintain that grip under a wider range of conditions.

Yes. The other day I overcooked something rocky and fast, and with a quick dab of brakes and a flick I was back on course hardly having slowed down. Because I still had bags of control.

maxtorque has it nailed, on a FS, you can grab some brake, and it will grip, on the HT the rear will skip. Sometimes that’s OK, sometimes it isn’t.