the micro is all that matters tho, its the micro you hear, that you dance to.
on paper there really is little to no differance between this sound and loads of other tech / deep house but that's only a problem if you're more concerned with talking or writing about something rather than experiencing it
I don't really see too much of a connect with dubbage tbh. Where dubbage was quite dry & rolling this sound is wound up, jacking (in the old sense of the word) it has a nervous / precarious energy.
Listening to the interviews with artists on Radfords show, UKG does seem to be a comman factor & whether its the influence of grime or what influenced grime it shares that same kind of staccato, loopy riffage without being minimilast. The tracks arn't horizontal like most euro tech house & they don't "doof" the same way, they are 4x4 but not metronomic.
And vocals. Almost everything has some scrap, some tiny (or not) referance to the human voice. Loopy female vox, little chopped up bits, hiccups, exaltations in the drums, movie quotes - you'll find it hard to sell the "intelligent" angle when you have tracks sampling Seth Rogan movies, faux news caster drug talk, chopped up rap tunes.
If you're not feeling it tho fair enough but I don't see the point in that kind of reductionist 'its just house' argument, trying to turn things into lists, its music not a bill of lading.