Well guess what sunshine, this is an anime recommendation thread. Go read your books somewhere else.
I would if people didn't spread false information about the series such as UBW having a worse story than Zero.
And on that topic, why bring up source material? Every anime is going to alter the original source in some way for so many different reasons like time constraints, viewer enjoyment, etc. It goes hand in hand with animating. Certain things in books won't translate into television as well as you might think, there has to be cuts to keep it fresh. The anime is a standalone, a great one at that, stop comparing it to the VN despite how amazing it is compared to 99% of the garbage out there.
How exactly is it a stand-alone when the whole point of this anime is just it being fanservice for VN readers? Not to mention that they are giving away the first route of the VN for free in Japan in order for the watchers to even understand UBW anime better because you require previous context from it. It's clear this isn't meant to be a standalone show. How is it exactly a great adaption and a great standalone when it alters characterization of it's major characters (ex. Shirou, Rin, Caster, etc.) and makes them out to be something they are not? How is it a great adaption when it alters the whole style of story-telling by changing the story-telling from a first person point of view to an ensamble cast?
Point is that this adaption does not adapt the story and characterization, but just shows story events visually and is meant to be a fanservice for the VN readers. So if anyone's going to go into this adaption for the
actual story, they might as well drop it now and move onto the VN. Going into it for animation and fights instead of story and characterization is another thing.
Everything, ranging from context from the Fate route to the VN knowledge of how Shirou, Caster, Saber, etc. think and act like and how the whole system of the HGW works as well as infodumps on various other things this anime does not include. Thus, it's not a standalone.
Even if your point about anime not going into depth as the original source still stands, altering character traits and backgrounds, etc. is completely needless.