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Well I think Taekwondo is more of a sport and art, while Muay Thai is more the science of 8 limbs.
500 Muay Thai fighters against 500 Taekwondo fighters, I think the former will win, but as always it's the individual that's important, someone like Bruce Lee would have become a high-level fighter in any martial art, imho.
I disagree on the grounds of it depends on who is doing the teaching... I have a second degree black belt... I had 4 masters in the time that it took me to get there (really 5, but I never considered the 5th to be my master)... My 4rd master, the one who trained me in the higher ranks to black belt and a bit after taught me the military style of TKD along with the sport style (to keep the owner happy). The two are so radically different it isn't funny. From the execution to the stance and even the mind set. Sport TKD you don't arm lock an opponent and proceed to destroy their nose to prevent breathing, military style you do. Sport TKD you have a lot of spinning kicks and fancy techniques, military style you stick to simple effective and hard to determine and aim for certain areas (knee pelvis solar plexus throat eyes upper lip).
I left my school because that master was fired (the owner figured out what was going on) I stayed slightly after because I was an instructor at that point and getting paid, but.... I wasn't learning anything new... After he left I started exploring other martial arts, and really I'm happy I did. TKD if taught correctly, is fantastic, unfortunately it became the primary McDojo style and lost all of its effectiveness in lieu of sports style (thanks to the Olympics). Now the new McDojo is MMA... I've trained in MMA, been to competitions (did alright, never won, but I did make 3rd place once, and always got at least close to placing, I was usually defeated by a BJJ practitioner which is why I started learning that...), and the MMA taught in schools is not MMA.... its BS. If a school says "MMA" you should avoid it, as it is just a gimmick to get you inside.
My issue with MMA actually is the same issue with TKD now, too many rules not enough pure style, where you learn what is completely effective. If you are going to teach someone something teach them the entirety and focus on showing them the rules later. Why? Because then they understand the history of what they are learning and come to respect it. If you learn something purely for sport you don't really respect it because that is all it is to you, a sport.
As for 500 Muay Thai vs 500 TKD, again type of fighters... If they were both military trained you would be surprised at how similar the two are. The main difference is kick delivery... The TKD doesn't curve their kicks and thus are a bit weaker, but gain a bit of speed, where as Muay Thai does and gains power but loses speed. What it would come down to is who can do the most damage first. I actually think it would be an interesting fight to see... NOW! If you got sports Muay Thai and sports TKD.... The fight would be over in minutes and would be insanely boring... Muay Thai... no points until you deliver damage... TKD points for a solid hit... Muay Thai anything goes except cheap shots... TKD has a bunch of rules and regulations... It would be a no contest. I have fought a Muay Thai fighter and won, but he didn't expect me to have a similar style to his own because he knew my primary style was TKD. At the end we became friends and started teaching each other a bit.
Lastly... Real street fights actually do end up on the ground a lot... The question is will one be left standing or both fall together... If the former the fight is over unless you know how to defend from the ground and recover... the latter will depend on how well you know ground fighting...
