Compare
Smaller is a choice, not a shortfall.
Minimal Writer does less than the tools it is usually weighed against, and it does less on purpose. These pages say what that costs you and what it buys you, so the answer can be “not this one” without anybody having to find that out the long way.
vs Scrivener
Scrivener, and what a smaller tool gives up
A project manager for a manuscript against a page that holds one. Which one fits depends on whether the research or the prose is the hard part.
vs Microsoft Word
Word, and what a page without a ribbon is for
One is built to produce a document other people mark up. The other is built for the hours before there is anything to mark up.
No prices and no feature tables here: those go stale the week the other side changes them, and a comparison nobody is maintaining is worse than none. What each tool is for changes far more slowly, and it is the part you are really choosing between.