I certainly haven't tried them all, but DMT is unlike any other substance I take.
THC makes music nice and dims my intellect so I'm happier and more easily impressed by my own nonsense.
MDMA makes me calm and patient.
2C-B makes me sensual.
ketamine makes me meditative.
NOS is unpredictable, sometimes it shows me an energy wall of basic polygons, sometimes it shows me a 10 second movie clip perfect for my screenplay.
LSD makes the carpet into Persian rugs and the walls into intricate mosaics.
etc. etc.
DMT, though, opens up a door I didn't know existed. it brings light into a place that has only ever known darkness. and, if strong enough, it entirely prevents my open eyes from seeing what is right in front of me and all around me, even though I can feel it still. it shows me that there's a world my mind has never been able to see before, but which it can see as clearly as our world, under the right conditions, and that that world can pervades through me, and can effortlessly play with anything it wants to in this world (a limp tapestry comes to life as if a strong wind has picked it up or invisible hands dance with it, as though the wall it's on is only an open window, as though things here are only as real as they want to let them be). DMT introduces me to other worlds and other forms of life that seem to be more magnificent and intelligent than perhaps I ever could be! and it leaves me completely calm, sober, and lucid, to deal with it as you would deal with being handed a VR headset for a Zoom call across the galaxy, showing me that my mind can see just like my eyes can (which they never could before) and entirely shattering my perception of what my eyes are capable of seeing...happening through me, like a colorblind person suddenly able to see color, no new insight or skill or understanding just an instant upgrade of the faculties bestowed on you.
...Like Terence McKenna said, I'm glad this stuff isn't actually accessible by breathwork or meditation or some other practice people promise works magic--it's too magical, too sacred, it's not a world I want to be stumbling into unprepared like a muddy pig shrieking through a church service. There are probably times it shouldn't work, or people it shouldn't work for (younger me, for sure!). Given how tremendous their world is, I think it seems appropriate to trust their judgement over ours. I think we're mostly closed up in this realm for now for a very good reason. Maybe they need to be protected from us, and maybe some of us need to be protected from it. It's so bizarre trying to plan the rest of my week knowing some kind of interdimensional Truman Show has been going on this whole time and nobody ever talks about it.