It's interesting because for me that was a reversed process. I always* knew what I wanted to do with my life, until I stood there and realized that it's simply not going to work out, having to struggle against my nature to achieve what I thought was my goal in life. That might sound like far fetched silly philosophy, but in losing that fight, I ultimately won, atlhough I realize that I got really lucky that coasting on the river of life without the will to steer against the stream ended up carrying me to a pretty good place.
Eh, but I posted enough about that already, suffice it to say that figuring "it" out is all nice, but no guarantee for anything.
That makes sense, when you look at NGE in its function of being representative of Anno's struggle against depression. It also very neatly explains why Rebuild falls flat, because that shifted everything to his struggle with the inane NGE fandom, which is decidedly less interesting, and has a much less relatable personal stake. I mean seriously, how many people on the planet really have to engange with that toxic a fanbase on a regular basis? Certainly not me**. Plus Mari and the seizure inducing action that the team likes to sell as the creative vision behind NGE rounds that out. Sure guys, you do that.
I agree on the feeling of catharsis, for me that's... Violet and her struggles. It just worked.
*It changed, once. When I was really young I thought I'd go into electical engineering.
**I also don't really know what depression is, but I still related to the struggles of the characters. I thought I did, once, but that turned out to be a stupor induced by too high blood sugar levels. In spite of having gotten better in time, my basic emotional level is more or less still nothing for the most part, and the way I understand it that's not the case for depression - I'm not under any strain or stress in that state. The closest approximation is a state of grand, cosmic ennui, except without the feelings that accompany ennui. Which means it's not really an approximation. Does that make sense?
Whisper of the Heart caused the longest change in that state in recent memory, while watching Violet go through something similar was very impactful. More so than Rei in NGE was, to be honest.