"privacy coins" are definitely different from Bitcoin, although I can't tell you how private their transactions actually are, because I honestly haven't studied how hard or easy it is to track those transactions. However, given that the authorities are quite hostile towards such cryptocurrencies and that most centralized crypto exchanges have removed them, it is quite clear that they want to discourage people from using them.
It wouldn't make sense for someone with malicious intentions to use mixers when they could go the privacy coin route? I guess they have a hard time accessing privacy coins since the bans so their business goes to the mixers?