So my old phaser was the Empress one. As phaser pedals go, it's extremely complex, with several modes, numerous switches and knobs. I bought it because I was writing a funk/disco record, and the Empress has some modes where it's more of an envelope filter than a phaser, so you can get some pretty cool quacking things from it.
But I almost never used all that functionality because it was way too hard to see what you're doing when it's on the back row of a board.
The Waylon phaser has some versatility, but it doesn't try to do all of those sweeping, quacking things. It lets you dial back the depth, so the phasing can be more subtle (which, for me = more useful).
I shot it out against the Mobius. The Mobius sounds thicker but also seems to lose some of the dry signal's high-end sparkle.
I don't own an MXR phaser anymore. In the past, I've had a couple different versions of the Phase90, and I'm pretty sure I'd pick the Waylon phaser over any of those (more versatile for sure).