2 LPChip
Let's not fall in the trap of some silly discussion, about 'what's the best'. It's not relevant here, it's about technical aspects about both formats. And I certainly would advice Samplekit to switch to the IT-format, because it has the best future and is more versatile.
For me it's a different thing, because I'm not going to convert all my 300 works I made in the past, starting with FT2.
XM doesn't have sample pannings (or instrument pannings, one of the two)
It has both.
XM indeed doesn't seem to have filters.
Of course FT2 isn't compatible with plugins. This feature was added by Olivier. But I suppose Impulse Tracker can't handle plugins either. And this is the beauty of MPT, it has integrated both progs.