CuteEditor is certainly a more complete control...is it better...I suppose that depends on how you define "better". I like it, and have not returned to FTB. CuteEditor offers improve table editing and support, better image support, and improved dropdown listbox support. Configuring the control is about the same as FTB...which is to say easy. The users also like the font coloring toolbar menu option...it does have good behavior, as well as emoticon support. Of course it has been more than 6 months since I have looked at FTB...things may have changed. And I know the ASP.NET Forum developers have integrated it into version 2.0 of that product...so maybe it is getting better.
The CuteEditor menu bar can be customized just about anyway you want...I myself don't use any of the default configurations. I have also used custom buttons, but only to add NetSpell to the menu bar. I also use a custom styles dropdown....since we use it in the iBuySpy Portal, we have populated the dropdown with our CSS styles unique to the Portal...it works well. Sorry I took so long to respond...hope this helps a little...