Boss Rush 3 Super 2 was a great meta.
Certain well balanced SBR stages were good.
Type ESBR was SBR on release except if players had developed boxes to handle it, great meta.
There was a sweet spot with certain teams on LGE and LGTE but they were either bullshit or babbyshit for the most part.
I have mixed feelings about Red Zone but stages without bullshit mechanics are good when units are balanced to match, probably a bit below SBR back in the day overall.
If BHFF had a reason to be ran itemless, it would be just below ESBR level.

I only wish I'd been there for Super Strikes and the first Dokkan events, seems like they had a lot of creative strategy involved.