Being in the south, and near one of the BEST largemouth bass fisheries in the country (Santee Cooper system), I fish topwater ALOT. The Sammy IS a good bait. Easier to work than say a Zara Spook, due to it's shape, but I wouldn't say it's that much better.
I can't say that I've seen a instance where the Sammy outperformed the Spook, or or similar walking baits. When they're on the sammy, my partener can still catch'em on a Spook, or other topwater baits out the back of the boat.
Now the LC pointers are a whole nutter story!!! My boat's never in the water whitout a Slender pointer tied on. That's a fish catching machine, and has put more than a few $$$ in my pockets...