FR is significantly more... I guess "coherent" is as good a word as any. Forgotten Realms has a core region that's pretty much "standard D&D", basically the north-west corner of Faerûn (the Vast, Cormyr, Sembia, the Dalelands, the Moonsea, the Dragon Coast, and the Sword Coast (previously known as the Western Heartlands and the Savage North)). Beyond that, you have some outlying regions that do different things, like Mulhorand. But each country in Golarion is basically its own little sub-genre — gothic horror in Ustalav, vikings in the Land of the Linnorm Kings, wild eternal revolution in Galt, and so on. That's pretty different from the Forgotten Realms.
I don't think Golarion is Paizo's equivalent of the Forgotten Realms. It's their equivalent of Mystara.