The difference is that Kurz is the first ÖVP head that succeeded with his power play in ages. All the others eventually had to go because of party strife, he disbanded the party essentially.
You should expect the party to be better as a result but it's the same old garbage conservative party still.
This. There's a reason that there had been this initial euphoria by conservative center-right voters about Kurz. (polling at a record 30% early this week)
He's young. He's somewhat charismatic (more charismatic than, say, Molterer, Spindelegger and many that came before him). He's got the "unquestioned support of the party" (instead of the other way around, him being a puppet to the Landeshauptleute).
People had high hopes that he would actually deliver on the promise of renewing the ÖVP. But yesterday's vote made the party show their true colors, which aren't teal, but deep-deep black.
I think, politically, that was a bad move. The conservative base would have voted black even if they had gone along with marriage equality. Social progressive ÖVP voters might not forgive this block, a
very significant gesture, all that easily. Voting yes on marriage equality would have swayed many NEOS voters back to the ÖVP, as it would have been a strong signal of "see, we're not the shitty conservative old-people party anymore"
Forcing them to put their cards on the table like that was a rather smart move by the other parties.