Im not sure how far you have progressed, but unfortunately the show doesnt maintain the level of excitement that it presented in roughly the first 10 episodes. Though tbh, I think the hate for the show grew more because of how overrated it became rather than it actually being terrible. Still worth watching imo.
Right now I'm on the 4th disc, which iirc is about 16 episodes in, where you find out about the 'fake Kira' or just after. So far so good, I always know if I like something or not by how ritualistically I start putting it on to watch and tbh it's been sometime since I woke up early enough to watch a few episodes of something before work and then watched a few more before bed.
Always a good sign with me, I have the attention span of a ADHD goldfish. I get so easily distracted if I'm not totally pulled in.
As far as anime goes, im more of an 80s/90s fan as opposed to any newer series. Some of my favorites are Zeta Gundam, Berserk (original anime), SDF Macross, Ashita no Joe, Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X, Gunbuster, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, etc. I like some newer shit like Gintama, Kaiji, Steins;Gate, Code Geass, Initial D, etc, but I find the "best-girl" shit to be a bit nauseating. It is like Welcome to the NHK has come alive and all Japan is doing these days is satiating the nerds lame enough to buy figurines because they also spend the money on BDs and such. Anime has stagnated heavily these days, and animation-wise isnt doing much to be desired.
I'm also more of an 80's/90's anime fan, that's always going to be where my heart lies with the genre. The way I discovered anime was accidentally catching the second half of the Akira film on late night television when I was a kid, which anybody familiar with Akira knows that the second half especially without context is pretty fucking dark and bizarre. It freaked me out but for ages afterwards I kept trying to find it on VHS.
In the meantime my uncle randomly borrowed Armitage III from a video rental store and after watching that I was hooked. Some of my earliest favourites were Dragon Ball/DBZ, Bubblegum Crisis, Inuyasha, Ranma ½, Ninja Scroll, Orphan, Fist of the North Star, Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X, Wolf's Rain, Royal Space Force, Appleseed OVA, Perfect Blue, Blood: The Last Vampire, Jin-Roh, Spriggan, Cowboy Bebop, Vampire Hunter D, Ghost in the Shell of course and Patlabor.
I spent too much time watching stuff from the past though and could never quite keep up with what was current and shit. So I am extremely late to stuff that is even like 15 years old already. I still haven't watched Initial D or Scrapped Princess or Steins;Gate or Code Geass. I do like FMA, Chrono Crusade, One Piece for its wackiness and design originality (though long series are fucked in general) and uber-modern (to me at least) stuff like Nichijou and anything by Ghibli or Mamoru Hosoda.
I also have a soft spot for most things done by Clamp, like Fruits Basket, X and Card Captor Sakura.
I'd actually love a nice tight recommendation list from people who are like me and prefer the older stuff but still watch some newer stuff. I feel very n00bie just trying to explore the newer shit.