Sometimes the easiest solution is the best. Not everything has to be the twelve labors of Hercules.
Overall I agree that the Johns approach did make Krypton feel most like a diverse world of different cultures blending into a greater planet, but perhaps because of those stunning Rocafort pencils, I do love the look of the New 52 era Krypton.
Most Kryptons work for me, though I'm not partial to Byrne's. It was definitely alien, but coupled with his need to have Clark born on Earth and have him heavily favor his adopted culture from his birth one, it just felt like one more way of taking one big dump on the whole immigrant element to the character. Literally every part of "ye olde country" sucks in the Byrne approach to Krypton/its heritage, so I'm overall soured to it, though it does feel like an actual place with its own customs and history. Robinson's Starman touched on it in a fun way too, which shows a much more idealistic young Jor-El to contrast with how rigid he could be in flashbacks where he's an adult. Really informed how sterile society made Kryptonians as opposed to it being built in.
If the New 52 Krypton looks like the one I'd most like to visit, Byrne's/Post Crisis is probably the one which may have made a more compelling docuseries on Netflix.
As much as I love the Donner version, the proliferation of crystals really does make me think I'm trapped inside my gran's chandelier.