ENGAGEMENT:
Chris King's engagement ring design is far and away the most precise and robust compared to the typical pawl or DT's star ratchet. That's where the distinctive "Killer Bee" sound comes from. The question then becomes, is that a major discriminator or icing on the cake?

For off-road applications where the hub ends up under massive loads from VERY short gears, the Chris King design is just about optimum. However, even for off-road and most road applications the more typical hub designs that use pawl & ratchet engagement systems work just fine too.

DURABILTY:
So long as you do the periodic maintenance (clean & lube), the DT's should have a similar service life to a Chris King. A clean and lubricated DT hub is a happy hub. One that is neglected will eventually begin to skip and then fail.

By the way, the Chris King hubs also need some periodic maintenance, the first and most critical being a check of the bearing pre-load after about the first 100 miles or so. Beyond that, the engagement rings should be cleaned and treated with CK's Honey Butter or what ever they call it these days on at least an annual basis, and more often for demanding conditions, e.g., wet use and most certainly off-road.