Per my comments on Dekoni sheepskin pads, changing the thickness, construction material, and adding a mesh filter kills the treble. Without EQ (Loki) they now sound like thick mud, but with EQ they sound close to neutral. With more listening time it seems that the mesh filters block unwanted high-range noise. Increasing the treble by EQ sounds cleaner to my ears than lowering it without the mesh filters.
The Beyer DT 880 (600 ohm) surprised me, and it’s sort of a conceptual step up from the Koss Porta Pro. The mid range is creamy smooth, but with modest bass and piercing treble. I’d put the 600 ohm mid range as equal or superior to any 300 ohm product I’ve heard. The HD 800 S is easily a better overall product, but it costs 6x or 7x more. Relative to either of these, the Clear comes across as grainy and edgy – but absolutely fine if you start listening cold.
There are indeed many way to skin a cat and 50 ways to leave your lover. Sometimes you can get to a similar end point with very different hardware and at extremely different costs. Your characterization of the Vérité strikes me as how the HD 800 S or Utopia performs on a poorly matched amp/DAC.