(That's their "picks", but they have reviews and tests on a lot more models. I just can't find a good place to link to just "all of the noise cancelling headphones".)
Don't just skim the list, click in and take a look at the individual products. They do pretty extensive quantitative measurements of all of these headphones and provide useful commentary alongside (e.g., the Sony ones are shallower so if you have big ears they might get uncomfortable). They have full frequency response graphs for the noise isolation, recordings of how it fares against some test samples, etc.
They also measure some less typical stuff like "clamping force" and "ear breathability" that's hard to tell just from briefly putting them on in a store.
I've personally tried some (older) Sony against (older) Bose and I can't really comment on whether the ANC is better because they pushed on the arms of my glasses hard enough and the shape left them resting _on_ my ears instead of over them such that they hurt to wear after a little while. They could be head and shoulders above, but that would be worthless to me because I would never use them. So I'd mostly echo what the other commenter is saying--they're all pretty much "great" in passive/active noise cancellation and sound quality. Just get whichever feels best to you.
On the other hand, I don't mind the ANC from my sennheiser momentum.
https://www.rtings.com/discussions/adsg5oN7w-9Dgb3O/treadmil...
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-8/graph/25566/noise-isol...:
Sony and Apple AirPods Max are considered best-in-class.
Inherited some Sony WF-1000XM4 and can confirm that they're really good at noise cancelling. Plus they have an ambient mode (with optional "filter in voices") which is helpful when you need to interact briefly.
This is starting to sound like a sales pitch, but if anyone like me is on the fence, they're really an incredible product that has improved the quality of my life, which I don't say lightly.
The AirPods Max…get them on my ears correctly, and I’m in a forest. It’s uncanny. It was the most profound alteration to my experience there in years.
I have both noise cancelling "big" earphones and earbuds. I agree with you that the the "pressing on the ears" is annoying, so I usually wear the earbuds: the noise cancelling is slightly worse, but the latest noise cancelling technology is really good enough.