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I've had quite a few different hardtails of all types and I think my fsi is as good as any of them at descending, at least from a geometry perspective (I also think it's too stiff for anything other than racing...).
I really enjoy riding it in a race too whereas normally I don't notice the bike much.
To the OP,buke setup might be the key. My skinny Kona had a very well sorted setup, so I felt able to go just as fast as I would have done on a bigger bike. The bigness of the bin bike only helped when it got really rocky and/or steep, which xc courses usually aren't. With some exceptions obv.
Only time I didn't race it I took my 5" bike to Thetford and set it up with really slow compression and rebound. That meant I could stay seated on those rollers which helped hugely on a 100 km race.