The Maple Mini clone shines with SPI DMA... here is a vid by the dude that implemented the DMA:
And, my implementation of Harichord using the Adafruit ILI9341 lib (mod):
The ESP8266 has great integer performance and when Arduino routines (objects) can be kept in IRAM, it shines. But while it is a great little 32-bitboard, tge STM32F1xx blows it away when DMA is implemented.
But any Arduino seasoned user of 8-bit devices will be blown away by either board; although I lean toward the Maple Mini clone by Baite fir non-WiFi projects.
Ray