Two domains, same DR — are they actually comparable?

Been thinking about this a lot lately: two PBN domains with identical DR can have completely different backlink profiles underneath. One domain might have built its DR from a slow, natural-looking link history over years. Another might have picked up a chunk of its DR from a spammy period, a topic pivot, or a burst of low-quality links that later stopped. Same number on the surface, very different domain underneath.

Yet DR still gets used as the go-to shorthand for "this is a good PBN" in a lot of buying decisions — including by people who should know better.

Curious how others here actually evaluate this in practice:

• Do you dig into historical backlink data before buying/using a domain, or is DR + niche relevance "good enough" for most placements?
• Has anyone gotten burned by a domain that looked fine on DR but had a messy history (foreign spam period, expired-then-reused, anchor spikes)?
• What's your actual checklist beyond DR when vetting a PBN domain?

Genuinely interested in how people weight this stuff, not just in theory but in your day-to-day buying/building decisions.

Same DR definitely doesn't mean same quality. I would check the referring domains and anchors before making a decision.

DR alone is not enough for me

I’d check backlink quality anchor text history referring domains and topical relevance before judging a domain

Two domains with the same DR can have completely different value

DR is basically a measure of the strength of a site's backlink profile. I use it as a filtering metric, but DR by itself doesn't tell you the quality of the site.