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I don't do other martial arts, but just from having trained in several Aikido dojos, I'd say Aikido in theory has within its philosophy and design potential for self-improvement not as easily found in other things...but how much of this is taught (or sought) varies an awful lot from place to place.
There are those who just want to be king of the hill, and take Aikido to make them tougher than anyone else...it seems to work for them, so it certainly is not my place to say they should want anything else...and who knows what they may next look to find, once they tire of being the king...
I've seen and heard very senior yudansha teach with the sole goal of making their students the biggest dog on the mat, no matter where they might go...and they attract students to whom that is attractive.
So, would a different martial art, with a different kind of sensei, turn out perhaps more spiritually-oriented, self-mastery driven students vs those Aikido students mentioned above? They certainly couldn't be any less so...
There are Aikido yudansha who see ukes as things, and beginners in other arts who see the universal thread that binds us. Personally, I think that is a shame, but it is not my place to demand other seek more out of Aikido than technical advancement any more than they can demand I do it for self defense.
So I would say as I understand the design of Aikido, and for the reasons I do Aikido, there is an advantage over other martial arts in methods for self improvement; and I specifically choose instructors who would seem to further this goal, and avoid those who would not. But there are plenty who see it as first/foremost/primarily self-defense, devoid of philosophy, and if that's their perception, it's real for them, and could in fact be more accurate than mine.
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