I did a lot of 8-bit Atari programming at the time, and the display list was the greatest thing ever. I was a bit surprised that other computers had global modes rather than being able to mix-n-match and create a custom mode. Double-buffering was also trivial, by writing to the other memory area then setting that address as the display list starting address in the vertical blank interrupt handler.
The C64 had better sprites and sound, but the Atari did more with less, with the 2600/VCS being an extreme example. In particular the SIO[0] (serial I/O) architecture let peripherals work without a lot of logic, whereas the C64 drive had a more powerful CPU than the C64 itself. Atari SIO with its daisy-chaining, device numbers, and command/response structure is sometimes referenced as a precursor to the design of USB. Atari SIO was even better in that devices could load their drivers over SIO when booted so that devices made in the future could be supported without OS/ROM changes or manual driver loading.