but not recommendations of classics? But only after keeping in mind that not everything that is a classic is actually a classic?

This does not make any sense.

But I will reply when I get home anyway. 

My picks below. All maps seem to be from the hrarder sort so easy skill would be recommended for quake beginners.

Adamatine Cruelty (ac)
Tale of Abbot's Rune (Sgodrun1, Sgodrun2)
Ceremonial Circles (czg03)
Rain Palisade (rainpal) and Storm Dungeon (storm) from the Rapture pack
Halls of the Shambler God (Ikspq3)
Homecoming (Ikspq4)
Whispers in Darkness (soe2m4) from Soul of Evil

To recommend some smaller maps I need to give it some more thought. 

is it not obvious the 'classics' tend to get that label because they're the ones that most people feel that way about in the first place? penumbra of domination is still my favourite and that's not because of any pressure from review sites to feel that way (it came direct from ftp.cdrom.com), or impossibly hard gameplay. there was only joy in completing that one. i also would have thought hell in a can & moonlight assault were pretty recognised classics...

but assuming this is just a badly worded question asking for understated old maps i'd chip in the following;

bnt/bnt2: bridges & towers
cursed: the occursed
iam1: myworld is yourworld
morbid_2: morbidity 2
solfall: solarfall
shoggoth: chapel shoggoth (probably an acquired taste this one) 

Some more. All mixed up:

ant - Antediluvian
wishes - The Well of Wishes
thehand - The Hand That Feeds You
ne_lend - The Living End
mappi - Red Slammer
fmb_bdg - This Onion
bnt - Bridges & Towers
prodigy_se - Prodigy Special Edition
oms2_2 - Conflagrant Rodent
a3 - The Journey Home
dis_sp6 - Ruined Nation
cjhsp1 - The Katagean Redoubt
sm56_czg

and of course Travail and Beyound Belief 

apsp1
shadow
Neil Manke, Matt Sefton, Fat Controller (e.g. Otranto) 

Anonca Base 3 by Rob Marton - anonca3
Black by J.F. Gustafsson - qblack
Daredevil's Descent / Cryogenic Crypt by Dan Koppel - cryo
Death's Taste by Utah - utah
The Epoch Turning by Andrew Smith - epoch
The Forgotten Level by Anders Persson - tfl
Habeas Corpus by Dan Thibadeau - corpus
King Solomon's Mines by Roger Staines - ksm
Notlob's Moonshot by Steve Clarke - sgc8
The Sacrifice of Flesh by Jonas N.P. Lindstrom - sadlark6

BONUS - The Virtus Episode from Deathmatch Maker retail - review

More can be extracted from: http://erc.50webs.com/text/q1.txt (~) 

Menkalinan had a pretty big impact on me. Februus Depth too. I'd also think that e1m1rmx might be a good map to start someone on. 

you know what would be great? if more people would rate maps (with honest ratings) at quaddicted. 

Yes this is true, but I think you and I need to figure out some system to unlock all your hard work.

In my experience, people are adverse to saying something negative and prone to saying something positive. And I don't think human behavior can be relied upon to change.

I've thought recently that maybe one key to this is figuring out "level complexity class".

Someone new might not be ready for a map with 160 monsters and some puzzles that are mad complex ... regardless of how perfect the brush work is or how much people like the mapper.

Now, I *like* super-hard maps and as an example Masque of the Red Death was something that I viewed as a challenge.

But is that the kind of thing that represents an ideal first experience to Mr. Newboots? It isn't. 

In my experience, people are adverse to saying something negative and prone to saying something positive. And I don't think human behavior can be relied upon to change.

I don't agree with this, I believe it is the way round. How many times have you heard that people want a dislike button on facebook? How often do you hear 'I can't post that comment because someone will get their feelings hurt!' I would love to post constructive criticism on lots of things but it is always seen as 'being negative' instead of 'suck it up and realize this is things you should consider improving!'.

Sites with user rates are worthless, there is no other polite way to say this. Nobody goes to sites for random user ratings, people want a viewpoint by someone they can trust. People read blogs/news sites because they value that persons viewpoint and opinion. User ratings are just background noise, it might as well be a random number generator putting stars at the top of the page!

The best solution is what shambler did with his review site. If someone wants to do quaddicted a good service is get together a group of people and they write a short review of the map. Agreeing on some review standard beforehand might be good but something consistent that can be compared. It maybe a lot of work initially but review the personal favourite 'best of list' first. Produce actual content that is worth reading on a review site.

For this to work it does not need to be amazing reviews either, just a couple of lines by a couple of people, once a week and good sized screenshots instead of the usual micro thumbnails! Someone agree on the map to review that week, make sure the group of people download it, send back their short review, consolidate it, get some nice screenshots and post it. Worthwhile news and something to comment on/discuss.