It is no secret that a large proportion of the wealth accumulated by Dubai merchants comes from smuggling gold bullion (mostly from Britain), Swiss watches and Japanese cloth into Pakistan and...

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/1970/06/06/golden-dubai

Gold flown from London’s bullion houses like Johnson Matthey and Samuel Montagu to the The British Bank of the Middle East and the First national Bank in Dubai played a significant part in making Dubai what it is today. Shipped out by Arabs, Pakistanis and Indians in dhows to Bombay and other ports like Kutch and Calicut in western India, it brought much wealth to the merchants and the larger business community of expatriates who had made Dubai, home. The narrative of oil in the Persian Gulf has largely overshadowed that of gold and underplayed its significance in linking Dubai to the international economy.

https://mei.nus.edu.sg/think_in/gold-smuggling-between-dubai-and-bombay/

Yes it would. Dubai is a small coastal emirate. Afghanistan is a large landlocked country in one of the highest mountainous regions of the world.

Afghanistans largest ethnic groups are Iranian ethnicities (Persian) and the historical and cultural background are very different from the Emiratis who are Arabs.

What you said would be like saying "Italy without Pasta would just be like Denmark."

I was gonna say that Dubai is what you get if you give Afghanistan more money but that's kinda the same sentiment

I think it would be less flashy than today but actually a minor success. It was already on the rise before oil.
And it's perfectly positioned for flying between Africa, Europe and Asia. There's a good reason so many major airlines are from the Gulf.

well i imagine the average temperature would be slightly higher but i'm not even sure about that.