@Jerseyfornia I obviously never saw either a Darkness or River show live in person. The Darkness tour has always loomed large for us who can only go back and listen in hindsight due to the 5 heavy hitting broadcast bootlegs. But now that we have several professional quality officially released River shows that we can compare directly to similarly presented Darkness shows (I.e. we are no longer needing to account for sound quality and can simply compare performance against performance) I agree with you. On band performance, musical and emotional range, and most particularly Bruce's vocals, I'll take 80/81 ahead of 78 now.
Of course, a live show is just that... a SHOW. By definition, there is a visual element beyond just the criteria listed above. So someone who has been lucky enough to actually see and experience both tours live in person may have a differing opinion.
Top 3 album for me and best (original 80/81) tour. Title track Has always been my favourite Bruce song.