Hmm, perhaps so. Baki for example sucks as an Anime, The anime are low budget, lacking smoothness. But, Baki is better read either way.
One Piece is the confusing one, I love both it's anime and it's manga. The Manga will always be special, but I do find it difficult to reread older arcs which were a bit more bare bones and faster paced somehow. The Anime, despite the filler actually slows the older arcs, which makes them more enjoyable.
Alabasta for instance, once the crew arrive in the manga, they set off to find Koza and whatnot, find Ace for a few minutes, then he's gone. Anime takes it's time, we spend a few episodes with Ace, and we explore the land. It actually feels like a journey.
Of course, there're some bad filler too. Long-Ring-Long Land was a... not a bad arc, but not one I'll reread often, and the anime stuffed that arc with so much filler it made a so-so thing into a terrible thing. And as the Anime went on, The Lengthy flashbacks which are simply bits and pieces of older episodes also hurt pacing too.
But, more to the point of the thread, in support of "Manga better than Anime" I'll always say Jojo. Parts 1 and 2 were butchered by the Anime, made breakneck fast, and animated terribly. The original look of the art in the manga is completely lost, great moments are cut, and it's paced so fast.
Part 1 i've read in 4 hours, Part 2 in 4 and a half, both managed to be quite entertaining, yet part 2 in anime even managed to be longer than when I read it, and still was lackluster.
Beyond, I have no complaints for Part 3. I think when it comes to Jojo or Baki, the animators rely wholly on panels, which leads to still moments, which I think rob animated smoothness. Makes it feel cheap. A panel can still be possible, and smooth, but there's no in between, but I doubt they have the budgets for it.
Part 4 was fine. Part 5 was the apex of animation for Jojo, wasn't perfect, but it remains the smoothest part. Meanwhile part 6 is a dip which sort of loses the art style of the manga a slight bit, cuts scenes, and propels things swiftly. In fact each Part of the Anime manages to change the artstyle in some manner, which while some of the changes are nice, they do not hold a candle to the beauty of the manga.
But, of course, there is the problem. I compared part 1 and 2 in the anime, to part 1 and 2 when I read it. I imagined a quality that can never be satisfied in reality. Anime will always fall short to manga, because manga provides the frames for the mind to expand upon. The first ten chapters of Hokuto No Ken could be a 2-hour film in my mind, but the classic animated film managed to pack way more chapters in less time, altering story, cutting and rearranging characters, and while offering an entertaining film I do love, it fell short in comparison to what I wanted.
Animators can't really compete with the Imagination of diehard fans. It's impossible.
[BUUUT, I'll mention One Piece again, I know it's on a 6-month hiatus anime-wise, and Oda is taking a break due to health concerns (please Oda, rest, please, we can wait). And I also know that the Fishman Island re-edit absolutely sucks, proving my point of breakneck speed harming the flow of a story which the original anime made well, but the recent episodes of egghead and even wano were superbly animated and told.
But, I bet the One Piece Reanimation from WIT will suck, it will follow the faster-paced means, and if they were the ones who made the Monsters Special, their animation has to be the worst I've laid eyes upon.]
