Either cooler can cool the charge air by the same amount, but the air to air requires more surface area within the charge cooler because the transfer rate of the heat from the charge air to the aluminum to the cooling air stream is much slower than the heat transfer rate of the charge air to the aluminum to the coolant. That additional surface area means a larger intake tract volume and so introduces additional lag. Just-in-time, if you saw worse results with liquid to air systems then they were not optimally designed, either poorly sized charged cooler, poorly sized radiator or improper flow rate. I like the simplicity of air to air coolers and the overall space savings (only one cooler instead of a cooler, radiator, pump and reservoir) when they can be plumbed easily.