Really, Halfway House is that good? I remember trying it at some point, but it didn't take me long to decide that the people barely acted like people (though come to think of it, maybe it was just the one character...). But I like your taste, so maybe I'll give it a proper shot.
I'd personally squeeze 'Zanith' and 'Mutt & Jeff' into that list, though.
So, on the subject of writing and Depraved Awakening, I felt DA had way less weight behind the characters because everyone seemed to take everything so well in stride. Like, "Oh no, this is terrible, literally traumatic!" at first, and then the scene would quickly transition to "Oh well, let's bang, wanna try anal?" or something equally tone-deaf. I'm exaggerating because I can't actually recall any of the scenes that made me feel that way, but to me it did feel like the characters were somehow very detached from everything going on around them (unlike in CoBD), which makes it especially odd to me that people in here seem to go nuts about Carli.