I think they are pretty equal. If you use a free Torrent site, yeah, they suck.
I use a private torrent site in which you HAVE to upload after downloading. Speeds are always ridiculously high (I average about 1.3MB/s) and all the popular stuff is right there for months. It’s harder to find old stuff (not stuff that was made a long time ago - stuff posted)…but I haven’t had much trouble finding what I want.