Ok. Which is superior ?

I cannot speak for Floyd fanboys in general because at least outside this board, I know this opinion which I am about to state is not necessarily very popular among Floydians.  But I personally never saw the fuss about WYWH.  I mean it's a very, very good album, beautiful melodies and all but I never saw it as the undeniable masterpiece it is often made out to be.  And I really don't like Floyd moving out of pyschedelic noise and trying to write structured blues 'jams' (I put jams in single quotes exactly because it's way too structured to evoke the feeling of a jam).  And then the second part seems to be trying to evoke jazz rock/fusion and it's even more boring for me.  If I wanted a blues jam, I would listen to Allman Brothers.  I would listen to the wonderful Gary Moore-BB King jam on Thrill Is Gone that's up on YouTube and which every lover of guitar should listen to at least once.  If I wanted JR/F, I would listen to Mahavishnu or RTF, even Di Meola solo.  Floyd comes across as too tame when they attempt this.  Actually, much more so than DSOTM, it is WYWH which comes across as gateway prog for me.  Like In Absentia era PT, it is very comforting and melodic, and also very safe.  And the longish lengths make it feel like it's prog but it's only about as prog as Child In Time or Stairway To Heaven.  So overall, no, I prefer the succinctness and punch of Dark Side anyday.  Lyrically too, there is a lot of waxing over Syd on WYWH which is nice but also lacks the broad sweep of Dark Side as well as the latter's more bitter outlook.  Notice how many songs on Dark Side concern death or a path that leads to death.  Lyrically, Dark Side is way more hard hitting, at least for me.  

Hard hitting lyrics is the chief attraction of Animals.  And the concept overall is very coherent too which does make it a much harder choice between Animals and Dark Side for me.  But musically, I find Pigs VERY rambling and Sheep too a little rambling with Dogs being the only one that works in totality for me.  So again, the brevity of DSOTM works for me.  Basically, I don't think Floyd should have attempted epics or mini epics after Echoes.  That was their best and they were never going to top that.  I am sympathetic to Animals because Floyd came out swinging with all these long tracks in the peak of punk and because the lyrics were too hard hitting to be dismissed as airy-fairy out of touch prog, critics were put in a fix.  But as an overall listening experience, no, I still don't think it gets up to DSOTM.  

The Wall comes closest until it falters a little towards the end.  The problem with Wall is every song is wedded tightly to the narrative to the point that the ones towards the end like Trial do not work outside the context of the concept. Whereas on Dark Side, the concept is broader rather than being about a specific person's story and the songs standalone have a lot to say. 

it's like you want him to throw more insults at us

M27Barney wrote: Ah, well I have six Gentle Giant CD's in my back catalogue cupboard...for some reason I have not listened to them, or maybe the occaisional track after reading on here about it...none "stuck" snd similar to KC and VDGG have yet to resonate and become part of my prog canon...maybe one day...it took me a while to get into Yes in the late 70's so we shall see..PEACE...and avoid the covid19 everybody...

I suppose then that most of Gentle Giant is just pop seeing as their tracks rarely go beyond the average late Beatles 3/4 minute length?

You know, the further you post the more evident it becomes that you clearly lack historical context and have only the vaguest inkling of musical composition based on an impenetrably dense adherence to a bafflingly stilted Berlin Wall of prog/not prog. 

In any case a direct quote from Roine Stolt: