I think the answer to this question is best separated into three areas; volume dynamics, pitch changes and timbre changes. You will notice a trend here, as each is explained.
Pitch is the most important part (since rhythm is in the hands, well mostly). Playing bass in the analog world, what you play is the pitch, volume and timbre. Adding pedals means you could alter the pitch like an OC2 does or a whammy. In most of these cases the other two factors remain unaltered by these pedals. Keeping focused on pitch, when you want it to change, you move your fret fingers, or in the case of whammy, you can also move the treadle. You have to add a new pedal for vibrato, or move your hand. In the new synth pedals, you can have all of this and more. As far as feel goes here; it's more of an analog vs digital sense. Analog feels immediate at the cost of possibly loosing pitch tracking depending on technique while digital CAN but doesn't always have some latency. Depending on the unit this can be per patch complexity or desired sound. You can also alter the pitch using the other two properties or additional controls like LFO's, sequencers, time delays etc. This feels different because it may mean that pitch no longer matters, making your instrument a rhythmic trigger.
Volume dynamics relate best to an analog envelope filter or swell effect and can very much relate to the rhythm. Much like each pedal filter has a different feel, so do the new digital synth pedals. There is a good chance that you can use the volume dynamics to control lots of different parameters individually or in unison AND vary the amount plus direction it is applied. You can set up a digital synth pedals to feel the same as the analog counterparts for the most part. You can also set up the new synth pedals to completely control the volume envelope. Everything from a sustained forever sound to a very specific envelope. This control can also be applied to volume, filter, tabmre, effects, pitch etc. So you can have it feel very natural, or have it forced on you, which again, changes your bass into a rhythmic trigger, or even just a start and stop button.
Timbre is the last. It's also the most complex in the analog world and the most challenging to program in the synth world. This is where all that practice to get a note to ring out, a slide on a fretless or the clank lies. In the analog realm, you set up pedals to interact with eachother and layer them to get different sounds. You put octave before fuzz so you get the fuzz to act a bit different due to the timbre of the octaver. You may even be able to take advantage of timbre with playing technique with some analog pedals to change the tone of the effect. In the digital synth pedal world the timbre you play has little effect and in some cases can actually give you poor pitch tracking or false gating. This is where feel and control are VERY important to have the synth respond well. Further, if you want to have the timbre change in the synth pedal, not only can you, but you can make it very complex. You could program clever ways to influence it with playing dynamics and certainly with external controllers like an expression pedal. So again, you could turn your bass into a rhythm trigger and have the timbre fully programmed.
From experience over the last number of years you have to make a choice between putting time (and money) into finding pedals that feel good, or lots of time and a bit of money into programming. Now, lots of others have created patches so this is less of a concern because you can just upload a sound and tweak. There's also the mixed approach, wjere you have some analog and some programmed digital and blend them. If you love the octaver and fuzz thing and just want different dynamic control maybe a programmable filter is the missing piece. Maybe you want a very predictable oscillator with different timbre and you have a phat filter you just cant part with.
Unfortunately, if feel is a picky thing for you, trying for yourself is always best. I'm picky that way and also don't want to spend time programming a pedal in a screen, so I fall into the mixed category where I didnt jive with the FI and won't try the C4, so I stick to Enzo, Zoia and analog boxes, some with MIDI control.
