Well, yes and no. A good multi tool is capable of incorporating particular elements that are at par with an equivalent single use feature, such as the knife blade, the pliers, the scissors, the bottle opener. The idea behind a good multi tool is that the parts that make it up are designed to be as good as, and in some cases better than, what you would find discretely. For a 3" pocketknife lock blade, my Leatherman Wave is arguably as good as any other knife blade I can put in my pocket right now. It will do the same job at least as good as any other 3" folding lockblade I can find. Same with the serrated blade. I discovered long ago that the pliers on it work just as good as the electrical pliers I was using before, and I could cut and strip wire, hold parts while soldering, and undo nuts and bolts just as easily with it as with any other pair of pliers of equivalent size and shape. The screwdriver tips were probably the biggest compromise for functionality. Despite this, I ended up using the Wave's screwdriver tips more often because they were still good enough to get the job done and more convenient.

It is most likely due to the functions around which the multi-tool is designed and some good engineering development that make a multi-tool such as my Wave less of a compomise than what the ATAX and skatchet appear to be.