Man, I should watch Crest again. In the meantime:

• I'd rank Harlock, 999, and Yamato up there as far as world-building, although the characters are more "interesting" or "amusing" than necessarily realistic. For Yamato, I think the original and 2199 are about on par - the original seemed more serious, while the remake has much higher visual quality.

• Cowboy Bebop, although I'd assume you'll have seen it if you've seen Crest and LoGH.

• Martian Successor Nadesico was an interesting take, more focused but definitely trying to bring a more serious tone... mostly.

• I definitely feel you as far as Gundams go, although I'd suggest checking out War in the Pocket, 08th MS Team, 0083, or IGLOO as I find the side stories and OVA series to bring much higher quality both in terms of writing and production. Of the mainline series, I think Turn-A and Seed are probably the best you can get in terms of tone and world-building, and even then there's a lot of goofiness.

• Have you seen any of Votoms? I haven't finished it, but it sure has the "bombastic space opera" feel, even though it starts out with a very tight focus.

• Other than that, maybe Knights of Sidonia? It tries to be less "space opera" and more "hard SF", but I'd say it's on the edge - like the difference between Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars.