Horses for courses.
Depends upon what you're aiming to do.
In a leaker, Maxlife is far better than Defy in my actual experience.
Defy does have what I'd consider a nicer add pack on paper and does have API SL levels of ZDDP for those engines that really need it, although most of these engines did just fine back in the day on oils with no or low zinc.
A HDEO 10W-30 would click all of the wear boxes but none of the leak ones.
In a fairly oil-tight engine, either a HDEO 10W-30 or maybe 10W-40 Defy, although I'd favor Defy for no special reason.
In a leaker, Maxlife, although some have also reported good leak reduction with PHM.
JMHO.