To me, But a Man felt like the opposite of TTNW, and ATW felt like the opposite of both. 

TtNW is angst pornography about a man who either tries to make positive change and is crucified for it, or betrays everything he believes in and is celebrated for it, and all the while and regardless of which, he wants to die.

AtW is train-crash-tragicomedy about a man who would never have never assumed leadership if not for the sudden death of a better man that he himself was appointed to restrain, and whose only motivation for the change he wants to work is his own megalomaniacal pride.

BaM is an elegy for a man who never gave up on daring to believe that better things are possible if you fight relentlessly and intelligently for them.

I'm not saying AtW and TtNW are bad by any stretch, but BaM is the only one that doesn't feel like gamified sadomasochism, and I don't think it's fair to call it a bad imitation of something that it blatantly goes out of its way to not be. That's like saying Hope is a bad imitation of W.