The problem with this comparison is subjectivity. We will never know if they became better versions of their own self, nothing happened or the whole thing chang

The problem with this comparison is subjectivity. We will never know if they became better versions of their own self, nothing happened or the whole thing changed them for the worse, because we would need to access the parallel in time with their lives without the experience, to objectivelly understand the phenomena. In their particular evolutionary ladder, how many stairs they jumped? In the end the best way to understand this, is to understand what they tell you about themselves, how they were before and after the experience. It may not look much from your perspective, but it may be something better, from their point of view at least, then what was possible before..