I'm quite interested as to your reasoning for giving Neon Genesis Evangelion a 2 while giving something such as Yuri Yuri, including the special and OVA, 10s.
Evangelion was good at the start, when there were actually giant robot battles, which is what I started the series for, but later on, I think at the mid point, it started focusing more on the psychological aspects, and that annoyed me a lot. There was also so choice of main characters. Shinji is probably one of the worst protagonists I've ever had to put up with, I continually felt like I wanted to punch him in the face, because he was unrealistically whiny and useless. Shinn Asuka, from Gundam SEED Destiny, is a more bearable character. The ending also bothered me, I prefer happy endings, but Evangelion decided they'd rather kill everyone off... because reasons. There's also the fact that when given the opportunity to do the right thing in the movie, Shinji decided to just let the entire world just stay LCL. ON the topic of that movie, the vast majority of it is just strange visuals and Shinji crying like a baby. Bakurano did it better.
On the other hand, Yuru Yuri was entertaining and fun through the entirety of the series, including the OVA. I enjoyed the entirety of every single episode, and unlike Evangelion, there weren't any moments that I actually considered dropping the series. It does what it's there to do, and does it well. There are serious moments when they are needed, and those serious moments are done well and realistically, rare though they are, but a moe anime really doesn't need serious moments, but they were works in perfectly. It's one of the few anime that never disappointed me, despite my growing expectations for each season. The characters are actually done so well, and are so enjoyable to watch, I found myself wishing that somehow ALL of them would get more screen time.
I have an affinity for mech anime as well, but the purpose of Evangelion was to actually be a deconstruction of that genre. I understand somewhat your grievance for your betrayed expectations by shifting to psychological themes, but it might help to understand a bit more about what surrounded the show.
Hideaki Anno, the creator, was undergoing psychological treatment at the time and was surrogating Shinji and the themes are more critical of human nature and riddled with analogies seldom used in anime, ever present due to Anno's own experience at the time. Every scene, every effect (despite some things being done due to budget constraints) has subtexts and symbolism.
Shinji was more closer to human than most anime characters in history. What's more feasible? A 14 year-old being psychologically traumatized by the events surrounding his past and his present to the point he no longer had faith in himself or others, and ran out of ways to cope with those realities, OR a 14 year-old being completely badass, stepping up to the plate and getting into the mech and defeating everything in sight and saving the world? It might be more fun, more enjoyable to watch the latter, it might be more entertaining to insert yourself into their shoes and situation, but it leans closer to fantasy than reality.
Shinji isn't a strong or likeable character, as I firmly don't believe he was ever meant to be. He already had emotional baggage and was further burdened with the responsibility of saving the lives of everyone in the city, and inevitably the world by piloting technology he had little understanding of for a nebulous organization lead by his own distant father. People generally don't want to put themselves in his shoes, as they don't want to feel or look as weak or pathetic as Shini, they don't want to consider that they themselves would not be strong enough to overcome such obstacles. As with the rest of the characters, they act and react in the manner most beffiting to them because realistically, trauma impacts people differently and can manifest in many predictable and unpredictable forms.
There are various scatttered scenes (and one deleted scene) of Asuka, a much berated character whose personality is always to act out of superiority and belittle others, that shows she is not only insecure with herself, but that she nearly despises herself and can't come to terms with the feelings of rejection, and the fear of being rejected again. That is a solid basis for psychological retreat and putting up the front that she does.
At the same time, Evangelion was never meant to be liked by everyone, it was never meant to be enjoyed in the traditional sense, it's very idiosyncratic in what Anno was conveying, and no one will fully understand it as much as himself. I feel the same applies to most people in general; you will never fully understand another person, you can only see their behavior, maybe draw conjecture and come to your own conclusions. In fact, Anno was more than likely aware of this, since many scenes in both the main series and End of Evangelion had met most prerequisites to being enigmatic and controversial in meaning.
It is one of, if not the most polarizing anime shows to date. It's literally what art should be. Created for one person, with little to no thought to audience. Fans literally sent Hideaki Anno death threats to him and Gainax because they didn't agree with the ending. Not everyone is going to understand it or view it from the same perspective. It's interpretive, it's invoking, but more important than those it was fastened to Anno. Personally, knowing and seeing the inner thoughts and processes of another person is always fascinating to me.
Anyway, those are just a few things I wanted to get out there. Again, not for everyone; Even though I feel it has more artistic merit than what you seem to given it, I respect your decision to feel the way you do about it.
Thanks for the clarification.