Yeah Ultimate's production was a huge shit-show.
As an adaptation, as someone who's hyper-familiar with volumes 1-4, I'd be hard pressed telling you any differences. They even adapted what was made of The Dawn. Biggest knock on Ultimate is the varying animation quality and occasional pacing issues that are honestly fairly true to the source material as well (but IMO work a little better in manga form.)
Crispin Freeman as Alucard is definitely top-notch casting, and I was glad to see the Ultimate dub retain some of the key VA talent. The English accents, for once, and especially compared to say Jojo, are accurate and feel genuine. I even thought Integra's VA and Bayonetta's were the same for a little bit.
The anime's strengths that I remember definitely have to do with Seras actually getting her own plot(s), and a higher focus on blood/gore over comedy as you said.
I also remember an episode where they spend the entirety talking about Integra's sister, who (spoilers) is fake, tries to kill Integra in the last 5 mins of the episode, is promptly dusted, and it's never brought up again.
GONZO!
