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Your question is like asking who makes the best truck, best apple pie or the best girl to marry – much depends on your personal taste. The Olivers are nice outboards, they were "fully jeweled" and the Bendix mags (when in good shape) deliver a nice hot spark and can troll all day without loading up. However, mechanically they are reed valve, cross-flow motors, basically identical to their competition save styling and color differences. Making a case for them mechanically is like "picking fly specks out of pepper…."
I wrote an article for our chapter’s newsletter comparing all of the "private label" 5hp to 6hp motors available in 1958, some of my findings on the Oliver-made Wizard would be the "fly specks" applicable to your question, others more "comfort and convenience" issues. Here are a few highlights:
The Wiz-iver 5 1/2 at 11.9 mph handily out performed the 5hp Gale (9.8mph) and 5hp Scott (10 mph) competition and was better than 1mph faster than the West Bend made Elgin 5 1/2. (Testing was on my 12′ Duranautic). I included the 5hp Kiekhaefer Wizard from the previous year in the testing, it was the fastest of all (13.2mph) but didn’t have F/N/R so the smaller gear case was a big advantage.
Other strong points for the Wiz-iver were quiet operation: 92 db as compared to the ear splitting 100 db for the Scott-Firestone, 99 for the Kiekhaefer and 94 for the West Bend Elgin. ( The Gale was quietest of all at a virtual whisper of 88 db) The Wiz-iver also offered decent serviceability for regular maintenance, far superior to the Kiekhaefer Wiz from the year before and better than the Gale.
Negatives for the Wiz-iver were the temperamental Bendix mag, relatively scarce parts availability and the top weight of the motors tested at 57lbs. (The catalog indicated 50lbs, either a mistake or gilding of the truth by the marketing folks!). They also have an oversize gear case and carrier bearing that Oliver must have sourced from a combine, I think you could pump 30hp through it with no issues!
Adding in their rarity as a factor, my personal feeling was the Wiz-iver is an excellent motor for the antique outboard enthusiast to own. And the Oliver tractor people don’t drive up the costs on the Wiz-ivers – however, since they were essentially a one-year offering, they don’t tend to be too common.
Hope this helps!