For the most part, yes. General MIDI sampled playback is more desirable than OPL3 FM synthesis.
However, you must just bear in mind that there are "good" and there are "bad" General MIDI compatible modules out there - this is mostly due to the quality of the samples that they have implemented, as well as the size of those sample sets.
Around the mid 90's many companies also started to introduce Wave Blaster compatible MIDI daughter boards (or sound cards with on-board MIDI support) but, with very poor quality MIDI samples and/or reverb/chorus effects.
Back in the early 90's, most game developers used the Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 to "compose" their soundtracks on - so, naturally, if you want to hear what the game developer intended you to hear, then one would have to obtain a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 (or a compatible module, like the SC-7) - more reading material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Sound_Canvas.
However, these can be quite expensive these days to acquire.
However, there are other "good" General MIDI modules out there that might sound slightly different in terms of the sample sets (for example, the trumpet or electric guitar might sound a bit different) but, this doesn't mean that the listening experience will be poor.
There are some Youtube videos that you can watch where the Doom E1M1 soundtrack is compared between different modules and MIDI daughter boards.