The pitch is largely related to the speed at which the fan is rotating. Louder is just not true, looking at the Noctua examples that your sibling comment posted, for the 140 and 120 in the same marketing range, the 140 is louder.
I would bet you that if you operated both fans in an perfectly empty, very quiet room with a human standing next to them, one at a time, the human-perceived level of noise annoyance from the 140 would be much less due to its lower pitch.
Additionally if you use a variable fan controller to reduce the rpm on the 140 to a point where its cfm or cubic meters/hour of airflow is exactly equal to the 120, or 5-10% greater than the 120 at its default rpm, not only will its pitch be lower, but its objectively measured loudness on a decibel meter will also be less.
