Your impression may be due to differences among microphones that were designed by different manufacturers for different applications--which is like comparing apples to robots or baby oil, rather than to other apples.
The maximum SPL of a condenser microphone is nearly always set by the overload point of its electronics. Membrane excursion due to sound pressure (as opposed to wind or a vocalist's air stream at close range) is absolutely minuscule. Capsules for studio microphones can usually handle 140 - 150 dB SPL or even more with only gradually increasing distortion--whereas the electronics clip hard at a certain point. (That's the reason for "pad" switches on microphones that have them--to reduce the input from the polarized capsule to the microphone's own electronics.)
But the maximum input and output voltages of the amplifier are basically constant when properly powered, so for any given microphone amplifier, the sensitivity of the capsule becomes the main independent variable. A microphone with a certain amplifier and a less sensitive capsule will have a higher maximum SPL than the same amplifier with a more sensitive capsule, simply because the lower voltages from the first capsule won't "push" the electronics as hard. But if one capsule is 2 dB more sensitive than another one, it will force the amplifier into overload 2 dB sooner in terms of SPL.
All other things being equal, though, pressure gradient transducers (= all directional capsules, at least in part) are slightly less efficient than pressure transducers (which are omnidirectional). Their directional patterns are achieved by physically subtracting the rear-arriving sound energy from the front-arriving sound. But when a capsule puts out lower voltages, it doesn't drive the microphone's electronics as hard. Thus directional microphones actually tend to have slightly higher maximum SPLs. You can read the specifications for any modular microphone system (Schoeps, Neumann, AKG, Microtech Gefell, ...) for specific examples.
--best regards