Craig was after The Bourne Identity and it's many sequels. I think that's the key difference. Maybe Craig sells the brutality a little better than Dalton. Got more physicality to him. And if you don't count Quantum of Solace, he also had much better movies.

Dalton just felt like the Andrew Garfield of Bonds. Let down by the movies not really knowing what they wanted to be, rather than his performance. He's superb in Hot Fuzz, to the point I now think of him as a local supermarché owner than as James Bond.