I am an academic and in my experience, these basic degrees say little about someone's professional knowledge, ability and competency 5+ years post-degree. What matters far more is motivation and continuing education, but not necessarily the formal kind, it's what the person learns as a combination of own effort to dig into things and experience. An ability and willingness to learn from own trial and error and a desire to grow and improve beyond school. Of course when we know nothing about someone, we look at their resume, degrees, whatever documented.

Despite my opinion above, when I was first looking for a therapist, I wanted someone who had similar education to mine, so I mostly considered PhDs. My first T had a MSW and a PhD, both from respected universities, long years of psychoanalytic training, and he was neither a good match for me nor someone with the kind of knowledge I was hoping for; he is mostly only interested in one modality. The second T had a MSW and educational pedigrees from so-called top notch institutions, and his breadth of interests and knowledge, as well as ability to engage and communicate, was way way above the first one. He was also a much better fit for me. But I really think it was related more to his personality and general social background than schooling per se.

What I usually suggest to people pondering what graduate education to go for is to consider it from a variety of angles: of course how the actual program content fits their interest and goals, but also practical factors such as timing and cost of the education. Also, if you have an idea where you would want to practice location-wise and what sorts of clientele you would be interested in, maybe try to match the choice of school in a way that it would satisfy basic demands in the field and could also provide the opportunity to be competitive with/against other practitioners, especially if this is not very early in life or second career. How could you possibly build a unique professional pedigree considering already existing background, the degree of choice, and your specific interests? I think it's worth doing a thorough research and cost-benefit analysis before committing to a program.