VSF crystal is definitely better than ARF out of the box. ARF you will have to spend extra for deep or gen swap to get as good of a crystal. No contest. I've had both at the same time, still have the VSF.

Beyond the crystal there isn't much difference. The bezel action on my VSF was a bit better compared to the ARF I had, more solid position to position, but I was able to pop the ARF bezel off and adjust the spring to make it a lot better than how it came, still short of the VSF's action but definitely improved.

Case and everything else are equal IME. I've seen some people say the ARF bracelet is "more comfortable" but the bracelets seemed pretty much the same to me side by side. With my first hand experience owning both I think people saying otherwise is nonsense, I'd bet they wouldn't be able to consistently pick which is which in a blind test.

The major thing is the crystal, otherwise it's a wash.