Actually, the Ghost is a studio console, but a few people use them live.
As for the Midas, I am a huge Midas fan and own a couple of Midas consoles. The Venice does NOT have the same preamp as the XL4. It is however very similar, as are the sonic properties as well. When you use it, you still know you are using a Midas. In fact, Midas says that the new preamp (Venice, Verona, Sienna) may even be a little nicer than that of the Heritage and XL4. Of course all of this is subjective. Due to new design techniques and stuff they have obviously found a way to tighten up the whole package a bit. Their bench tests may show better results, but in my opinion thats got nothing to do with whether or not it sounds better.
Bottom line, if you want to buy a new console for the studio for $5k or less.....
For feature set.....Ghost
For pure sound quality....Midas