Ported versus sealed speakers: is one type better?

Depends on total speaker design and each designer takes a different approach.  Wilson, Wilson Benesh and Vivid port.  Magico and YG do not.  

One thing that is common to Magico and YG is they are both aluminum.  Not sure if that has anything to do with it.  Could be there is a problem in maintaining damping if you port an aluminum speaker.  I haven't worked with that cabinet material and it is pure speculation on my part but it is something to note.  

It the port is tuned properly to the driver and enclosures you will find that bass response will be tight and accurate.  If placement is wrong or the port(s) are too long or short, cabinet volume is too small for the driver, ultimately you will get poor results.  

Room placement is also critical.  If the port is too close to the wall, sound gets muddy.  With a small bookshelf speaker, I find getting closer than about 18" from the wall leads to a dramatic reduction in clarity.  With a 12" sub, proximity to the wall becomes more problematic.  Think about how much air flows through the port in a 12" sub vs a standmount with a 6" driver. 

Both are great if they have a good design.

Several important points have been made. I'll add just a couple more.

--back in the day when BR designs were poorly tuned, they were touted to "more efficient" because of a peak that was tuned too high.  So you gained more "boom" and "efficiency" if you want to call it that.  This also gave BR designs of long ago a reputation for inaccurate loose bass-which it was.  A properly tuned BR enclosure will extend bass deeper, but as stated above, no gain in efficiency.  
--While the BR enclosure will extend bass deeper, it will also roll off faster at 18dB per ocatve below the tuning frequency.  A sealed system has a more gentle roll off of 12 db
--Bass response of either system can be great or lousy.  It's all about implementation and I don't think one can generalize at all on this issue.

@corelli
what is a properly tuned port? as opposed to improperly tuned 

^ If you had ever read any technical papers, you would know the answer to that question, it’s in the literature. Too much trouble to do the work, it’s easier just to display your ignorance and laziness? If you find reading too demanding, can you at least watch videos? Danny Richie has a series of GR Research Tech Talk Tuesday videos on YouTube in which he discusses in detail loudspeaker and subwoofer design.