What tangible benefits can I get from running Arch over an Ubuntu based distro?

I've been using Linux for around 3 months dedicated. I'm running Mint 15 which is based off Ubuntu.

Along the way on /r/Linux a few people have recommended that I try Arch.

I decided it would be a good idea to read the Arch philosophy, and I can see why a distro like Arch exists at a high level.

However when I look at my usage and Linux in general, I am not sure what tangible benefits I would get from using Arch.

Let's start with look and feel customization: From where I'm standing one would pick a DE and an optional WM and customize from there to get the front end one desires. As far as I know when people say - Linux is awesome because you can heavily customize how it looks, they aren't talking about rolling your own shell (although this is possible) typically users start with an established DE and make a few tweaks here and there.

So when it comes to DE and WM, it seems you can virtually pick any distro and install the DE you want, or for convenience pick a distro already offering the DE you want such as Mint XFCE or Mint Mate (gnome), so from a pure presentation point of view - I don't see any benefit in using Arch over an Ubuntu distro - for that matter even the biggest noob should in theory be able to download pure Ubuntu and replace Unity with the DE of their choice.

Access to software: Both Arch and Ubuntu based distros have good access to software. I've been in a few situations where I didn't find the software I wanted, such as Musique 1.3 when the repo contained 1.2 only, so I just downloaded the source from github and built it.

Another thing I've been dying to experiment with is Bluez 5, but as far as I know Bluez 5 has been road mapped in every single distro out there including Arch, and I know this is because Bluez 5 is a significant change and components like PulseAudio have not incorporated these changes.

Point is , what I could do on Arch, I can do on Mint with software, right?

Next thing is tinkering. Here I will admit I am a noob. I just stick with whatever kernel the distro came with, but there are times I wonder what I'm missing out on. But even switching out the kernel should be the same exercise right? Regardless of if you're running Arch or Mint.

Performance - honestly I have no idea if Arch performs any better than an Ubuntu based distro - comments welcome.

&TLDR: Please provide practical examples of how Arch actually benefits you and how an Ubuntu based distro would just not suffice.

EDIT: Update: Managed to get Arch installed just by following the wiki guide. Since it is in a VM, its a little tricky to get networking working, decided to install a DE too (Cinnamon). Some people joke about Arch being hard to install - but that was a walk in the park. Now I need to read more wiki, then tomorrow do a full system cross over to Arch. Can't really compare performance and the good stuff in a VM (software mode too).

Thank you for the feedback!