I mean if the mecha genre stands for characters with little depth or realism and story lines whose plot resolves in "power of love/friendship trumps everything", then yes, I'd rather avoid it. And have done so mostly. However I went into Evangelion expecting crap but getting gold. Since it's considered a deconstruction of the genre though, that's not necessarily surprising I suppose. Still, it's not like I would inherently dislike the premise of e.g. Eureka Seven, if that were the case I'd have dropped it immediately. It's just the quality of the product that's lacking, not the genre's antics. At least that's what I'd like to think.
Madoka is alright. Dunno, it's probably that I went in knowing relatively well what I was going to get, but it just never grabbed me much. Despite completing the series I have zero interest in the movies. Characterization wasn't as strong as I would've liked and the plot rubbed me slightly the wrong way too, (The concept of how witches come to exist and so on is just so inherently hopeless that I kinda wondered what's the point even.) Really though, I think a lot of it was going in with certain expectations.