R7 shooter with Z9 viewfinder envy

Hi—
I am a longtime Canon shooter that upgraded to mirrorless about a year ago (2 R7 bodies).  Recently, I went with Greg D to Iceland (SUPER trip, by the way),  While we were shooting puffins, the Nikon photographers were exclaiming about what they were seeing in their viewfinders (A puffin with shrimp!!! A puffin with fish and shrimp!!!), while all I could discern is that I was capturing a puffin with something in its mouth.  Greg offered to let me use his Z9 to compare to my R7.  What a difference.  The best way I can describe it is that the images were pixelated on the R7 compared to life-like and clear on the Z9.  The final pictures were fairly similar (considering differences in lenses used, etc).  The difference was that I didn’t know what I had captured until I looked at the playback or later at home on my PC.  I was left wondering if this was a canon vs nikon issue or a difference in level of camera body.  
 
I went to a camera store today for information.  The guy I talked to suggested that the R5 m2 was the way to go, and that the lower resolution of the R7 viewfinder was the problem.   I don’t have any way of testing this, so I’m hoping someone in this community would have had experience with these systems.  To help with this, I made a comparison chart which I am unable to save in this post.  I’ll post in the comments. 

I would probably stay with Canon if I could be assured of a higher quality viewfinder experience.  I like the line-up of Nikon lenses, but not sure if that’s enough to make me switch if I could get a better viewfinder experience.  Thanks in advance for your help!

Comparison chart mentioned in first post

I have no experience with the Z9, but the viewfinder of the R5 Mark II is quite good and you can see plenty of detail. From what I have heard, the one in the upcoming R1 is even better.

I have both the R7 and R5 (now replaced by the R5 II) and used them extensively on my 2023 safari in Tanzania (also with Greg D., btw) I had no such problems with the viewfinder of the R7 shooting thousands of images of small birds, wildlife etc. But of course, the the viewfinder of the Z9 as well as the one of the R5/II is better for detail as you already can take from your own comparison chart above. Comparing the R7 with the Z9 is a bit an "apple with oranges" comparison. The R5/II is at least on the same level as the Z9 for the viewfinder. But the R7 has been not that bad for me at all  as you described in your first post. YMMV, though

Wolfgang