I think I agree that Zooropa is the more cohesive artistic statement as a whole. The cohesive whole, a handful of all-time level tracks(title track, Lemon, Stay, Dirty Day), and the colorful artwork(it's probably in my top two or three favorite album covers of theirs) all lead me to think it's a more satisfying piece of art on the whole than Pop, despite Pop's many incredible songs.
There's also the mystique around it, how they made it in a way that was so very un-U2 - in the middle of a tour, flying back and forth from gigs to finish it, no time to second-guess, re-record, change producers, etc, just from nothing to finished album in six months, pure inspiration and confidence coming off AB and ZooTV. Very much the opposite of Pop. The chapters in "U2 At The End Of The World" dealing the recording of the album are maybe my favorite part of that book.
Looks like we're very much on the same page. One additional point you made is the erratic nature of the track listing, and correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this the first time there seemed to be some late-in-the-game changes, the start of a recurring trend that has affected every album since? I seem to recall a Bono interview where he mentioned the album originally opening with Mofo and "three dance tracks in a row" or something, but they were worried it might be too shocking to the listener. This is the same band that released Numb as a lead single.
So I think you could alleviate some of your issues if you tried reordering the songs; I had a custom playlist a while back but I don't think I have it anymore (it had Holy Joe, North and South of the River, and I'm Not Your Baby, which probably took it over the standard CD limit).
Yeah, and you can achieve the cohesion in multiple ways. You can make it more full-on in the Mofo/DYFL/Miami direction, or you can make it hew more towards that SATS/LNOE direction. For example...
The former:
1. Mofo
2. Discotheque
3. Do You Feel Loved
4. Staring At The Sun(Monster Truck mix, from the single)
5. Holy Joe(Guilty Mix)
6. If God Will Send His Angels(Big Yam AKA Grand Jury mix)
7. Gone
8. Miami
9. I'm Not Your Baby(w/Sinead)
10. Velvet Dress
11. Please(album version)
12. North And South Of The River
The latter, a more straight ahead rock affair:
1. HMTMKMKM
2. Gone
3. Discotheque
4. Do You Feel Loved
5. If God Will Send His Angels(album version)
6. Staring At The Sun(album version)
7. Holy Joe(Garage Mix)
8. Last Night On Earth
9. Playboy Mansion
10. Velvet Dress
11. Please(single version)
12. Wake Up Dead Man