Is there such a thing as a "better" English accent?

Is there such a thing as a "better" English accent? This question popped up in my head when I heard a fellow Filipino proclaim that her English accent is better because it's "American".

Obviously, she has not taken into consideration the diversity of North American dialects. Canadians have their own accents (as I learned eleven years ago when I was mistaken for speaking like one) and the U.S. has a plethora of different dialects that correspond to different accents. Reading up on the topic, I learned that the U.S. can be divided into phonetic regions: rhotic accents (which means that the /r/ sound at the end of syllables is pronounced) are found in General American and Mid-Atlantic English while non-rhotic accents (think British and Australian accents) are found in Eastern New England, New York City,  and Coastal/ Lowland Southern English; the Texan accent is an example of Inland/Mountain Southern English; and Western American accents are quite diverse but feature the cot-caught merger ("cot" and "caught" have the same vowel sound). 

Zeroing in into California, the diversity of the people have lent to different English accents. From its time in history as a colony of the Spanish Empire (1769) and as a province of the newly independent Mexico (1821), to its annexation into the U.S. (1848), California has seen the immigration of people of different ethnicities. The generations that came after these migrants enriched the English dialect (and therefore, phonology) of the state. The large proportion of Hispanics has given prominence to Chicano English while the people who moved from the East Coast during the Gold Rush contributed to what's to be the Californian accent. And then there's slang. I often could not understand my nephews and younger cousins because they heavily pepper their sentences with slang and filler words that do not make sense (to me). 

I think that all English dialects (and accents) reflect upon the strong and rich cultural heritage and ethnic identities of the speakers. Some are more similar (and thus easily understood) than other dialects. It is more important to get accustomed to hearing a wide selection of English dialects than pitting one against another. Calling one's own accent "better" just reveals that person's biases, aspirations, and desire for one-upmanship.