Something to keep in mind is who you’re asking. Boards such as this are generally going to prefer the crunchier, more optimizable classes like the Battle Master, simply because online discussion of gaming has always been a draw for mechanics — logically because you can discuss but can’t compare storylines in the same way as rules. The Battle Master is the most mechanical subclass of the Fighter (depending on how the Eldritch Knight is considered), so a D&D message board is naturally going to be considering and analyzing it more (especially in build guides, which are explicitly mechanical and “white room”). The Battle Master is the subclass which one can take apart and get one’s hands dirty over, but “better” is a loaded term outside the walls of build guides and forums (compare for example the debates on rangers versus surveys on how popular the class is — neither is wrong, both sides are simply approaching the matter differently).
If you held a d20 primed to roll a critical to my head, I’d say I’d rather play a samurai because the class just feels more interesting to me, but maybe that’s a combination of the fallacy of novelty and the classic player’s sense of fighter-as-generic tacked onto the BM. Nevertheless, I don’t feel that the particular metrics of build guides necessarily determine that one is better than the other (contrary to what they claim) versus being interesting reads on how mechanical elements of the game work synergistically. So, just play what subclass you think will make for a better realization of your character’s story.