PCI is the most checklist framework around. SOC 2 can be a checklist audit, depending on how much effort your internal compliance team puts into it. I've never had SOC 2 be really a checklist in the way PCI is. SOC 2 requires you to design and write your own controls and scope in or out different aspects of the business. SOC 2 does include monitoring and stuff like that.
The difference really is point in time vs period over time audits. PCI is a point in time audit, SOC 2 is a period over time audit. So for SOC 2 you do need monitoring controls, and then they test that control over the entire period (often 6-12 months). So you are monitoring the control effectiveness over a longer period of time with SOC 2. And even PCI has some period over time controls you need to demonstrate.
From the outside all compliance will seem like checkboxes to most people once controls are established. Because really the goal for most of the business is to make sure the control they interact with doesn't break, and the compliance team will likely give a list of things that the business can't afford to have broken. Which does seem like a checklist similar to PCI. But really, only PCI is straight up a checklist, as you don't really get to decide your controls.
