No, most dividends are "qualified" and taxed at the long term capital gains rate, assuming you've held the underlying for a decent amount of time.

Still, they're taxed, whereas buybacks allow the shareholders to control exactly when they take income.

Also buybacks will tend to select for frequently traded shares with high cost basis, further reducing total taxes and selecting for longer term shareholders. They really are just better than dividends in every way.

It doesn’t make sense to compare ordinary dividends to capital gains - either compare ordinary to short term gains or qualified to long term gains.