Question

Both methods return equal results. Of course, -[NSObject isEqual:] doesn’t compare the pointers of objects, it somehow check the inner fields or whatever. So what’s the point of using exactly -[NSNumber isEqualToNumber:] to compare two NSNumbers?

Answer 1

From the docs:

Two NSNumber objects are considered equal if they have the same id
values or if they have equivalent values (as determined by the
compare: method).
This method is more efficient than compare: if you know the two
objects are numbers.

So it handles id equals and number comparison.