I like Esbit for solo trips where all I want to do is boil water to rehydrate my meal with. So simple and quiet, can't spill it, works great. Can work for two under the same circumstances - you can burn two tabs at one and boil a quart nicely. But if you want to just heat a little more water for a cup of tea, or something like that, then it's not so great, or if you want to actually cook and have some control over the flame, no can do. So for me it beats alcohol but for some trips I like a light canister stove better so that I can have more versatility.
One last good thing about Esbit is you can mail it, even airmail, so for a thru-hiker it can be conveneient for resupply in that sense - although on the other hand it may be less available at local stores along the trail. And the no-spill factor means that I've heard of some folks taking a couple Esbit tabs as backup for theri alcohol stove in case of a catastrophic fuel spill.