It is confusing but I would say start with logic and think about what a cat is designed to eat and would eat if it were living wild. They are carnivores and are designed to eat raw meat. So a raw diet is great. If you can do it - not all can as it requires a reasonable knowledge to make sure the diet is well balanced and a fair amount of freezer space! Next in line would be cooked meat with little/minimum vegetable matter. As cooking destroys many nutrients, cooked food generally needs to be supplemented with vitamins and minerals. After home made diets, commercial wet food with a good meat content and no grains would be next on my list, followed by poorer quality wet foods (those with a lower meat percentage and/or containing some cereal) followed by dry foods.
Of course, added into the mix are factors such as cost, availability, whether the cat will actually eat what we choose for them, any health problems/sensitive tummies etc.
My choice is mostly good quality wet food supplemented by some raw meat/chicken wings as snacks and some poorer quality wet food (for cost and because Jaffa loves his felix and whiskas). Only Mosi has dry (about 1/3 of his diet) and I choose a grain free food for him - usually Encore from Sainsburys.
At the end of the day, most of us have to compromise and can't always feed exactly what we would like, but whenever I start to get confused about foods and what is good or bad, I just try to go back to basics and remind myself of what is an ideal food for a cat - raw food including organs and bones - and how I can get as close to that as possible.
I found a great quote on Barry Groves' website the other day: 'You'll never get a lion thinking, "That antelope was a bit rich, I think I'll go eat some goji berries"'
