It's tough to be fair when comparing the fighting quality of these forementioned species of fish. Water temperature is probably the biggest factor. Fish hooked in tropical waters have an advantage compared to Northern colder waters.
We have two tanks in my classroom, one's a tropical and the other a salmon incubator. We took one of the tropical fish, put it in a 1 litre bag of it's tank water (21 degrees) and immersed it in the salmon tank (7 degrees) and let it acclimatize to the same temperature. The tropical fish moved down to a rock and stayed there the whole time we left it in the tank. I reversed the process and in no time at all that tropical fish was zipping around like I would be right now if I was in Hawaii.
Just wondering if anyone has ever hooked a tuna up here in the Pacific northwest when they follow the mackeral up and if the fight is noticeably less due to the colder water conditions. Of couse the only time they come uphere is during El Nino which makes the ocean temperature up here warmer anyway so in this case the point might be moot.
Water depth is also a factor....a bone fish has nowhere to go but horizontally whereas a fish hooked in deeper water can sound. Personally, I like hooking trout and such in shallower water because you tend to have more arials than in deeper water. And another variable is wether the fish is being played in still waters like lakes or oceans or in a current (rivers).
For me the best part of playing the fish has always been the hook set and feeling those first head shakes especially if it's sight fishing: fishing with an indicator, a float, or a dry fly.... coupled with that first run with my single action reel screaming....that to me is the biggest rush of fishing.