I think both of them were technically sharper on some emcee shyt on HOE, by a little bit. Not on subject matter, but just on rhyming abilities and peak level shyt talking. In my mind, HOE takes the "Mobb Deep Stereotype" and turns it up to 11. Like, if you just think of Shook Ones 2 and Survival of the Fittest...the ultra grimy shyt, and you make an album full of shyt like that...
It's less well-rounded. There aren't concept joints like Take Away the Pain, or as many storytelling joints like Temp Rising, etc (although More Trife Life story is fire).
It just comes down to preference. I absolutely get why some people prefer it. I think The Infamous is a better album overall, but there really has never been an album like HOE before or since it came out, and it's just unrelenting and oppressively dark the entire time, and never lets you come up for air. I do think Hav was better as a producer on HOE as well, even if some of the individual beats on The Infamous are better. His bag of tricks was deeper, and he has some stupidly creative flips on HOE, and it was all him, and not him sharing duties with Q-Tip on the album.