Thomas Shey
Legend
On the foundational level the entire philosophy of how Fate and Apocalypse World operate is completely different. Both operate in a way that is philosophically different than GM as Storyteller D&D, but could not be more different from one another if they tried. FATE is at heart a game of cooperative storytelling where GMs and players collude to tell a story together. Apocalypse World represents a rejection of that collusion. A complete and total rejection of it in damn near every way. It instead asks to follow the fictional situation to its end. For players and GMs to just bring it without a particular end in mind.
I literally don't know how anyone who has direct experiences with these games could say they are even close to the same sort of experience.
Well, on its simplest level, because the differences to them are less important than the things they have in common. We're not talking about people who are particularly fond of any of them here, after all, even if they've had extensive experience.