What's with all the Sopranos comparisons?

Aight, I get it to a point. Both are big, lauded crime classics and both are HBO productions, but any similarities end there. I saw The Wire first and Sopranos shortly after and they are different enough that I don't see the point in claiming one is better than the other?

The Wire is a masterful, serious narrative framework without a clear protagonist, rather following 20+ people, gangs, institutions and whole neighborhoods that come together into a mosaic representing Baltimore and by extension a lot of the US. Sure, some characters are fleshed out very well and some of the story revolves around their personal flaws and ambitions, But McNulty isn't the protagonist any more than Freamon is, and Freamon no more than Bunk, Bunk than Kima, Kima than Bubs, Bubs than Ziggy, Ziggy than Omar, Omar than Avon, etc.

Sopranos is more of an absurdist psychological drama with a good helping of more-or-less deadpan comedy that revolves around a couple of crime families but where crime is never really the point. It's more of an exploration of the human mind and soul, with one main protagonist and a fairly fixed set of side characters. Carmela, Junior, AJ, Christopher, Melfi, Paulie, all solid characters but it's about Tony at the end of the day.

This ain't comparing Pandemic to Death Row, red caps to blue caps or any of that. It's comparing a bag of oranges to a fruit basket. I couldn't tell you which one I prefer because there's no competition, it's two different series doing very different things.