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I watched the first season of this after seeing numerous recommendations along this line (are all of these reviews based on single seasons or entire series?), and my ultimate feeling was "meh". Made in Abyss presents a world in which there is a big creepy hole, and ooh, what could be inside the big creepy hole? Turns out it's big and creepy. Wow.
While it is nicely animated and soundtracked as you say, the dull approach to the story and particularly unpleasant anime degeneracy left me with little desire to continue.
So much better than everything else on your list I honestly have no idea
I must say, most holes that are big and creepy don't leave you bleeding out of your anus. That is at least +5000 creep points, in every sense of the word.
Most of the "unpleasant anime degeneracy" is, in my view, instrumental, not incidental. The juxtaposition of childlike innocence and body horror is the engine of the show's aesthetic effect. It's designed to create maximum cognitive dissonance. It's a story about the absolute, uncompromising brutality of a natural system that has no regard for human values like "fairness" or "pity." The suffering of children is used because it's the most effective means to maximize the audience's sense of injustice against an indifferent system. If you find the mechanism distasteful, that's a valid reaction, but to me it's the core of what makes the show function so effectively. I don't think it would have hit nearly as hard if it was Hitler and Stalin going on a buddy cop adventure into hell.
Mob Psycho 100 is, by all accounts, a well-executed character piece about self-acceptance and emotional growth. It is narratively and thematically safe. Its central message is "it's okay to be yourself" and "your friends can help you." These are pro-social, therapeutic platitudes. It is, essentially, My First Therapy Session: The Anime. My preference is for stories that are thematically unsafe. Madoka is a brutal examination of utilitarian ethics and the horror of information asymmetry. Made in Abyss is about the collision of human aspiration with a universe of crushing indifference. Attack on Titan is a multi-generational study of the feedback loop between fear, violence, and ideology. One Punch Man (S1) is an exploration of existential ennui in the face of solved problems.
These shows take a high-concept premise and follow its logical implications to uncomfortable, often horrifying, conclusions. They are exercises in systems-thinking applied to narrative. Mob Psycho uses its high-concept premise (god-tier psychic powers) as a vehicle to deliver a fairly standard, low-stakes emotional journey. Mob's internal conflicts are profound to him, but the show's philosophical stakes are puddle-deep compared to the others.
I tried to specifically note where I simply got fed up with a particular show, or got distracted (which is often not the fault of the show itself, particularly for Vinland Saga). I think I finished the first season of MP100 before deciding to venture elsewhere.
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