Berserks fantasy settings lends its self more to the 100 man slayer thing rather than Noirs real life type scenario.
A matter of opinion. I like realistic and logical scenarios and storylines no matter what the genre is. Magic is naturally an exception as long as it follows the logic of the world the story takes place in. Fantasy (and SciFi) settings can and IMO should be planned logically.
If you don't like Noir that's perfectly OK to me. Just don't make statements like "Noir is paper thin" if you can't support it. That's why I asked you what did you like about the story: if you have watched more than a few random episodes it's difficult for me to understand how you can say something like that. The only other anime series I have seen that are even close to Noir's level storywise are Trigun and some parts of Witch Hunter Robin. (I haven't been able to bring myself to watch more than a few episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. See my earlier comment about mecha-anime.)
As an afterthought here are a few things that annoyed me in Berserk since you mentioned the flaws you saw in Noir:
- with few exceptions the stategies used in the battles were childishly simple and still Griffith was admired as a strategic genius
- The Hawks used mainly light swords against opponents wearing full armor (Gatts being the only exception)
- the 100-man slaying
- none of the Hawks whose names were mentioned (7-8?) died although they were waging war continuously for years. Until the final few episodes where the demons attacked, that is.
- a clich? incompetent, cowardly and enormously annoying enemy leader as a comical relief. Comedy was what the (very good) story needed least; it is a thouroughly dark and horror-influenced story and this just wrecked the style.
- "Blue Whale Ultra-Heavy Armored Reckless Knights of Destruction Vice-Squad-Leader Samson". See the comment above about wrecking the style of the story.
I could keep going and could even make a similar list about the flaws in Noir but it would be useless. My opinion is when I compare these two series that Noir is style- and storywise a better made package. Besides, Kirika (or Mireille or Chloe or anyone in Noir) isn't nearly as invincible as Gatts. Like I said there are maybe two scenes where Kirika stands straight and enemies aren't able to hit her but that's nothing compared to what Gatts does.