Can't stand Hafler Trio, everything I dislike about 'experimental' music; willfully obscurist, unchallenging, 'for its own sake', stay at home music. Might be the odd nice sound now and then, but it's basically muzak for Wire readers. No?
NWW, well, I think they fall into the same trap 98% of the time - their records are 'outlandish' and off the wall - but you always kind of KNOW what it's gonna sound like, right? Do you know what I mean? There's a certain 'Nurse' sound, it has changed gradually over the years, but so much of it's similar. I think Stapleton's pretty constrained, especially set against all the hype I read about his LPs before I heard them.
I'd vote for NWW just because I think "Soliloquy for Lilith' is beautiful (tip - listen to it while checking out the Egyptian section of the British Museum), 'Automating Vol 1' is entertaining and varied, and 'Insect and Individual Silenced' has its moments of surreal malevolence. Whereas I like nothing by Hafler Trio.