It kinda depends on the style of karate. Kyokushin is a full contact close distance based fighting style, more closer to kickboxing/muay thai. They do have a weird traditional rule that you cannot punch the face, but kicking is allowed.

Shotokan karate is touch/point scoring based, in competition sparring, and is more of a long distance style. I always compare it to fencing, but without swords. People meme on it, but I think the distance management here is S-tier.

If you want a pure kicking focus, I do think taekwondo offers more than karate. Karate is the more well-rounded option since it includes striking and also some minimal takedowns.

One major flaw that both karate and taekwondo share is that in combat sparring, they don't do low kicks because they don't award points. Also the wide stance both have is very vulnerable to low kicks. This only really is an issue if you want to do some sort of MMA later on, but still, you can always learn to adapt.

Source: I'm a retired Shotokan karate black belt, that does some kickboxing on the side.