It was basically a stern chase/running battle
That's a rather low hit percentage, especially since engagement distances were so much closer in the 1890s than they would be during the Russo-Japanese War and later conflicts.
It was basically a running battle
and a stern chase, and given the dispersal of the US squadron, some of the US ships were unable to get within range...and yet it still ended with the entire Spanish squadron driven ashore;
Colon hadn't even been hit before her captain scuttled her.
The only significant action in the same decade was Yalu, and given that the disparity in gunnery between the Japanese and Chinese was only slightly less appalling than that between the US and Spanish at Santiago and Manila Bay, I don't know that one can make much of a judgment.
From a tactical and positional point of view, the operational situation at Santiago was tougher for the Americans than Yalu was for the Japanese, and certainly Schley's squadron had a lot more to do than Dewey's...
Of course, the Russians at Tsushima were kind enough to allow the Japanese to cross their T and kept closing the range, after all.
WW I is more than a generation later, in terms of technology; can't really be compared.
Best,