I really enjoyed Control but I've really not played enough of either of their games to say who's games I enjoy more.

In terms of commercial success though there's no denying Kojima takes that one. Sam Lake's titles aren't really commercial hits. Especially Alan Wake 2 and FBC Firebreak.

For me it's a both and neither situation.

Both are great at coming up with intersting stories and characters, but I don't like the way they deliver those stories.

Kojima tries to always find surprising ways to shake the story to an almost ridiculous point (the whole "jumping the shark" of TV shows), and its abuse of cinematics bore me to death, finding them too long and breaking the pace of the games.

Meanwhile, while Lake is better at that, I hate with passion that his games don't have closure. I haven't played the Max Payne games, so I can't comment on that, but I played (and loved) Alan Wake, that had an open ending. I've also played and liked Quantum Break, and that game also ends without finishing the story (and it will never happen given how its sales went). So when Control came, I waited some time before asking and, sure enough, it's also an open ending game. Just finish the damned stories!

Metal gear alone beats everything Sam Lake put his name too.

Yes, based on my limited experience with what Sam Lake has worked on. Can't really choose between the two, they're both different kinds of brilliant (but flawed, although the flaws haven't been a huge deal for me so far). It'd be interesting to see what Sam Lake could do with more resources, and on the other hand, while I appreciate Kojima being quite a visionary, I feel like he might benefit from a bit of a balancing force (not too much though).

Kojima made gamers appreciate stealth. He is basically the father of the FPS subgenre of stealth. I hate the cutscenes too, but they are an annoyance that is in all games so i skip them whenever i can.

FPS subgenre?  I'm pretty sure that credit goes to Thief: The Dark Project.

Thief only has one sequel though, but plenty of gamers have played Metal gear even before it was a FPS, and so kojima is really the one who popularized stealth.  The work he did on pre-FPS Metal Gear titles laid the groundwork for the popularity of when it came to FPS finally.  Gotta look at the big picture, mate

Actually, Thief has had three sequels (and a VR sequel on the way).  Also, you keep calling Metal Gear/MGS a FPS, when it's third-person with a top-down perspective but also first-person toggling.  That whole dynamic is fundamentally different from Thief with exception of Deadly Shadows, which I think allowed for flipping between both.

Im a much bigger fan of Hideo Kojima's work and I find his games much more creative so he gets my vote by default.

Kojima is the Miyamoto of grown-up video games. Absolute genius and one-of-a-kind.