A neighbor of mine just stained his exterior wood (PT) fence with
regular minwax stain. I've never seen anybody use regular wood stains
that's translucent and penetrates the wood but shows the knots etc (a
rich honey maple color) on an exterior fence. It looks amazing, but
I'm wondering.. will that stain last? To my knowledge there is no wood
preserve in the stain? Nonetheless I think it will last as it
penetrated deep into the wood.

By comparison, another neighbor stained using one of those protective
stains especially forumated for fences and desks. The color is nowhere
as nice though.

Any thoughts? comparisons?

My thing is I want a rich wood tone and can't find that in the
Protective spray ons stains.