The MS 461 wearing a 28 or 32” bar is what I do a lot of my work in the woods with. I run it as a one saw plan, doing varying things including blowdown cleanup, snag cutting, a little production falling and fire cutting. I think they’re about as good as it gets for a one saw plan. If you’re only going to run a 20” bar on it you’re just going to haul too much saw around, IMO. That saw is too heavy to bend over with a short bar all day long. A 28 or 32 lets you stand up and limb/buck but that’s a topic for another discussion.
In comparison to an 044, they’re appreciably torquier and more powerful while mildly heavier & bigger. They feel remarkably similar, if the 044 & MS 440 seem a little more compact. They turn about the same amount of RPM. 13,500 is about as fast as an 044 needs to run, IMO. The 044 and MS 461 are both pretty smooth for rubber mounts, unlike the 046/066 which just honestly hurt after a while, but they’re not as smooth as certain spring mounted saws, the MS 441 and 576XP come to mind.
An awful lot of 044 parts are the same or very similar to the ones on the MS 461, and they’re still good quality parts.