Do different containers behave differently in relation to comparators? I had to exchange all my barrels for chests because they were interfering with the villagers’ profession (I hate how they work in the bedrock version)

As long as the size of the inventory is the same, it will behave identically. In your case, both the barrel and chest have 27 slots, so they will work the same. If you look at the wiki, you can see the number of items required for each power level depending on the container size.