what franchises (thinking of you saying that certain anime franchises are keeping the older model like the EU) would you recommend for someone who really enjoyed the EU?

The best I can offer, right at this moment, is probably the Fate franchise.  It has the EU-nature in spades. 

The original piece of media, the Fate / stay night visual novel, is (more or less) a choose-your-own-adventure video game where the story can play out in multiple very-different ways.  Each of the three main “routes” now has its own anime adaptation, plus there’s a prequel, plus there’s a billion other side stories and alternative-universe stories that manifest as various anime shows / light novels / video games / manga / etc.  And, due to in-setting multiple-universes shenanigans, every jot and tittle of it is canon.  It genuinely feels like a giant toy-shop where cool and brilliant stuff is crammed alongside the dumbest crap imaginable. 

…the core Fate concept, for those who are curious, is “mages summon Ancient Heroes of Mythology / History for a battle royale in order to attain the ultimate wish-granting prize.”  Except that, as you’d imagine from an EU, there’s a lot of deviation from the core concept.

As an introduction, I’d recommend either the Unlimited Blade Works anime (an adaptation of one of the original game’s main routes) or the Fate / zero anime (the prequel). 

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There’s also, uh, Neon Genesis Evangelion.  Which is legitimately brilliant art with a mostly-pointless-and-sucky EU attached.  Watch the original series, watch the End of Evangelion movie, but if the thing you want is to play around in the deep waters of a huge sprawling canon then you’d probably be better off looking elsewhere.