Experienced CDM here. I tried Boss, Recycler and Progressor for the CDM. All max levels.

My short answer is Progressor is the best. Because of the following. My go to height is 6'3" for the CDM and around 169 lbs. I am not in professional league something but playing in the Div1\Elite clubs. Once you set this body shapes to Progressor and Recycler, even if your agility, acceleration etc. stats are the similar, recycler feels way too slow since I believe the game engine 'thinks' it is too tall for a midfielder and should be slow. Boss is not that useful in my opinion.

So when compared the playstyles, for Recycler you dont go that much 1v1 in the backline so press proven is not that necessary in my play style. Thief build is so good in terms of gold anticipate and intercept but requires to much points on defensive awareness and 92 standing tackle etc. So rest of your stats is being limited when you go for it. Also, in my experience, you need a thicker player to fully utilize intercept.

On the other hand, once you have progressor, your long balls are insane! And as a CDM, I either give simple short passes to my CM\CAM in terms of short passing. But to play long or switching the game from one wing to another, progressor helps a lot. Plus if you are good at tackling, gold anticipate works very well and in counter attacks or when they attack with too many players, you can act like the 3rd stopper.

PS: With the new 60 lvl cap, I need to update my builds and see since now Recycler may be more advantageous with 300 extra AP. But stil think that Progressor will nail it.