Sidekicks are great, I love mine, but it's dual purpose - daily driver/weekend wheeler.
If I were building a rig for off road only, and I had a choice, I'd take the Samurai. The biggest disadvantages I find with the Sidekick are - the low floor/frame, deep cut wheel wells, limited lift options, with a maximum 3" kit(staying IFS). I could really care less if my doors come off, or my window folds down... That's just extra work!
I like how you could buy a running Samurai, do a spring over axle and go wheeling with 32" tires. It takes more work to do that with a Sidekick, more lift, more fender cutting, alignment... your centre frame is still not much higher and your wallet is lighter.