Basically Dante is better than Sentinel at the one thing he is good at in this game and that's spacing/controlling air space with his high ranged normals. Dante has 2 invincible moves in the air, a diagonal down beam and other shit. On the ground Sentinel is pretty worthless aside from 2 super armored moves. Dante also has about the same damage as Sentinel when all is said and done. And on a Phoenix team when both of them will not have access to that much meter or X Factor, Dante is going to be more useful.
Sentinel can't challenge Dante in the air because of Hammer, in fact no one can. On the ground Dante is also at a very advantageous position and his only weakness is at very close range where his fastest normal is 7 frames easily stuffed out by most rushdown characters... but that's where Haggar comes in. And after a hard knockdown Dante gets way more mileage than Sentinel
There are just so many subtler differences than that, though. Dante doesn't have a beam, and he can't cancel it on a whim or call assists during it. Dante has no command grab. Dante has no armor. Dante has no full-screen punishes that instant-kill assists or point characters. Dante has weaker DHC options. Dante doesn't have a launcher attack that covers half the screen. Dante can't combo off of his air throw without certain assists, and he can't combo off of his ground throw at all.
They are just two completely different characters, and yes, Dante has a better offense than Sentinel, and yes, he has attacks with huge range, just like Sentinel.
Sentinel can definitely challenge (challenge, not beat) Dante in the air - Hammer has very little range, j.M's range is huge; Hammer is execution intensive, and it's a lot easier to just jump and his "M" than it is to jump, qcf.L, qcf.L. That shit takes time.
Devil Trigger abilities cost meter. If you want to talk about Dante using Vortex against Sentinel in the air, I can talk about Sentinel Hard Driving his face whenever he tries it.
Sentinel is decidedly superior for backing up Wolverine on a Phoenix team; Jam Session and Weasel Shot aren't nearly as good for pressure and Berserker Slash. Once you block a drone, you're already dead if you're facing Wolverine on point. You can't say the same for Dante.
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not trying to say that Sentinel is a better character than Dante, just that I don't think the two are similar enough to even begin to make a claim like "Dante is a better Sentinel". He might just be a better character in general, but that's not the same as making a direct character reference like he could just replace Sentinel on a team.
