How many episodes did you give it until you dropped it?
I was really not feeling the first episodes either but kept watching because everyone said it was important background story and that it will get better afterwards. Slight spoiler there will be a major time skip and the main leads won't meet each other until episode 11. I definitely encourage to at least watch until that part before you decide to drop it
So I just finished it after 2,5 weeks of binging it on and off. The praise Eternal Love has been getting all these years is very deserving imo. I won't go into too much details since a lot of people in the reviews and comments have already expressed what makes this drama so good. It is my first xianxia and it was a rollercoaster of a watching experience I had a lot of fun.
I see some complaints about the outdated graphics and while I agree that the bad cgi is the most notable flaw I hope it won't put anyone off since it's not a significant element in the story. I recommend everyone who wants to give this a try to give it at least 11 episodes. The first arc is not the best but necessary. The story starts picking up in the second arc so I hope people will pull through. Someone below categorized the arcs like this which gave me a good overview so it might be helpful for others too:
First arc: Ep 1-10 Second arc: Ep 11-26 Third arc: Ep 26-54 Fourth arc: Ep 54-58
I decided to watch this movie as soon as I saw that it won an Oscar (and partially because it has Okada Masaki).…
Summed up exactly how I felt about it as well. If anyone else is reading this don't expect a spectacular movie just because it won an Oscar, it's really the kind of movie that only speaks to a certain audience
The operators were basically part of the game too. The higher ups picked participants that they knew the operators would recognize so that they'd get involved
Episode 17. I thought it was decent and I especially liked seeing Yangmi and Ethan together but I'm at a point where I'd rather spend my time watching something I enjoy more that's why I drop dramas quite fast
1 
I see some complaints about the outdated graphics and while I agree that the bad cgi is the most notable flaw I hope it won't put anyone off since it's not a significant element in the story. I recommend everyone who wants to give this a try to give it at least 11 episodes. The first arc is not the best but necessary. The story starts picking up in the second arc so I hope people will pull through. Someone below categorized the arcs like this which gave me a good overview so it might be helpful for others too:
First arc: Ep 1-10
Second arc: Ep 11-26
Third arc: Ep 26-54
Fourth arc: Ep 54-58
Overall a 9/10, it was great!!
If you're interested, here are some that I've seen that weren't in your list, not sure what your criteria is but from shortest to longest:
https://mydramalist.com/34148-finding-my-gundam
https://mydramalist.com/15621-the-vampire-lives-next-door
https://mydramalist.com/15966-tylenol
https://mydramalist.com/31329-my-dream-class
https://mydramalist.com/40019-gift
https://mydramalist.com/21946-moon-young