68000 was more powerful for addressing large amounts of RAM that nobody could afford. In terms of actual workhorse performance there's a good argument to be made that a similarly clocked 65816 could outperform a 68000, unless your benchmark is heavy on 32-bit integer calculations. Instructions per cycle and interrupt responsiveness are higher for the 65xx (and 6809)

I'd prefer a 6809 with a wider address bus over a 68000. I wish Motorola had improved on the 6809 rather than having two competing architectures. The 6809 is a joy to code for.