The flex comparison is probably not very fair since it's aluminum ripmo vs carbon rascal. I doubt the carbon ripmo feels flexy. At 210lb I noticed the ripmo AF flex, though.
The Ripmo plows chunk better. Rascal is a more nimble, precise machine and I think it climbs better where it counts (tech climbing), good support and yet somehow a crazy ability to roll over square edges.
To me the rascal is just a nicer bike to ride.
If you ride mostly blacks on fromme/Seymour/squamish, rascal is awesome and really doesn't give up much in the descending department to the ripmo, and is way better everywhere else.
If you look for a pretty steady diet of double black gnar, Cypress, etc it ain't enough bike (occasional is ok if you aren't racing). Ripmo will be a little better.
But, I'd argue the ripmo is still probably not the right tool for the job in that case, you need something bigger for that anyways, so for me it's a somewhat odd bike. If you're buying a ripmo AF, just be done with it and buy a Meta am or an Aluminum spire. If you're buying a ripmo v2, buy a firebird or carbon spire. Climbing difference is minor, and you can smash stuff.