I definitely prefer the smoothness of my shimano 105. My sram rival is just more “clicky” with the shifters. But it’s a minor annoyance. At the end of the day it shifts through the gears without too much trouble.
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Agreed, and my post was an attempt to distinguish between functionality and aesthetics/feel (in a broader sense).
Functionality-wise, I can’t really find much fault with either groupset manufacturer. If anything, my gripes with Shimano drop bar groupsets is about ergonomics (which is to some degree personal) and the gearing combinations they offer and officially support. But once you have a groupset, Shifting just works. Ditto for SRAM. So far, all equipment has been very reliable. My experience with SRAM gear is admittedly shorter, so perhaps ask me again in 5 years. Differences in shift speed or so are nuances that do not really have a large impact in my experience.
When it comes to aesthetics and feel, it is much more subtle. Porsche and Volkswagen take the same platform for their SUVs and make very different cars with them. The gearbox in both feel quite different and the difference is largely due to software tuning. Which you prefer is really a matter of taste. Some people prefer the looks of rim brake bikes, to me they look cheap — I’m a mountain biker at heart and only very, very cheap mountain bikes do not come with disc brakes. Some people prefer the hood shape of Shimano and find the SRAM horns distasteful. Some find ISM saddles to be an eye sore. To me the Di2 rear mech sounds chintzy when it whirs into action. Shimano’s shift buttons feel cheap. (Don’t ever let me try Campag’s electronic groupsets, according to Keith Wakeham they have the best button feel on the market. As a keyboard aficionado, this could become very expensive.) Ditto for shifting performance: what is crisp shifting to some feels clunky to others. Smooth shift feel may be perceived as mushy by others.
Yet, I find it completely fair to base your purchasing decisions on aesthetics and feel if that’s your jam. 
So if you prefer Shimano’s smooth shifts, then by all means, use that.
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I just put a Rotor 12 11-39 on my AXS bike. It got me thinking… a key driver for smoothness is the spread of the cassette. If you’re going from a 16t cog to a 15t cog, you’re putting a 1-link GONK into the chain when you grab a taller gear. If you’re 25t to 22t, you’re putting a 3-link shock into the system. I think Shimano’s new HG+ works to solve this by letting the chain move down earlier in the rotation, giving it more room to work and grabbing moving the jump to the area between the cassette and RD.
On the rotor cassette with AXS…it’s expensive, super super light, offers way better gear ratios than SRAM / Shimano offerings right now, but it’s a bit jumpy moving to lower (outward cogs) vs SRAM. You trade the useless 10t cog for a very useable 14t cog, and they space out the bigger cogs more. It moves inward and runs super smoothly. I tried both a flattop and eagle chain. On the bench with a few spare links to test, it seemed like it was made with the flattop in mind. Both worked, but the flat top chain seemed to work 5% better. THIS IS NOT YOUR SMOOTHNESS ANSWER
@TooManyDogs With my rethink… I’d point you to a Shimano 10-45 or whatever GRX 12 will be once they’ve got a road shifter that will work with a gravel cassette with HG+ next year. On your gravel bike, give a Eagle 12sp chain ($30 or $80 for the long lasting one) a try as it gives the chain a bit more room to snake on a shift (and your wolftooth ring should be OK with it). I don’t think using a GRX/SLX/XT 11-42 11sp cassette ($56 new) a try, but that’s not the answer.
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Definitely will try this. A quick google search shows many people doing that.