I've built both Debian packages and RPMs, and I feel that RPMs are somewhat easier to wrap your head around. It's been a while since I did Debian package building, though.
It's also undeniably true that there was a time when APT + dpkg blew Red Hat's "equivalent" tools out of the water, but that's not the case anymore.
One thing I like in particular about dnf/rpm is that I can install packages by using functions, so eg. telling yum to install perl(Net::DNS) will work and installs the perl-Net-DNS package. I'm not sure if apt can do this.
This is my biggest gripe with debian packaging. Also, the use of make files and the magic that goes on behind the scenes with debhelper (which you probably want to use) makes packaging much less transparent.
It took me days to grok how to make a proper debian package nearly a decade ago when I first did it - writing my first .spec file took an hour or so and now I can hammer most of them out in 15 minutes or less.
It's also undeniably true that there was a time when APT + dpkg blew Red Hat's "equivalent" tools out of the water, but that's not the case anymore.
One thing I like in particular about dnf/rpm is that I can install packages by using functions, so eg. telling yum to install perl(Net::DNS) will work and installs the perl-Net-DNS package. I'm not sure if apt can do this.