I started messing with photography when RC papers were brand new. They were uniformly wretched. They looked plastic. They had no snap, no life to them.
When I worked for a newspaper, we used Agfa Brovira single weight paper and dried it on a huge rotating drum. Later, the newspaper bought a Kodak Royalprint processor and we used RC papers with it. RC was looking a lot better.
These days, if you have a photograph hanging on the wall behind glass, I can't tell if it's fiber or RC without getting my nose very close to it. RC papers look extremely good today.
Oddly enough, I think most of the fiber paper available today looks inferior to that of 20 years ago. I don't know if it's the lowering of the silver content or the removal of some chemical from the emulsion due to environmental concerns, but something has happened.
Despite these observations, I find that I prefer fiber over RC. It has nothing to do with how the final print looks or whether or not it will last a quadzillion years. I like the traditional approach to photography and using real paper for prints is part of that approach.