I'm a fan of the Bale version the most, but to be fair, I like the entire Nolan series better than any of the movies before it, and in none of the series was any Bat-actor the only factor in his performance. Sure he can inject his own personality and quirks into the character, but the script and director create a large part of it as well as put up some very real boundaries on the actor's performance, as much as they want to make it "their own version".
That said, I am a fan of the Bale version of the character (the aspects that he was responsible for and the parts that he had no choice in) and the entire universe that they built around him. It seems to me to be the most authentic, and the entire structure of the three movie arc seems to be continuous and well thought out (so far). It's clear from the way Batman Begins very explicitly tells you who the next villain will be, to the interviews and set pictures of TDKR showing that the decision that Batman and Gordon made at the end of TDK is going to come back to haunt them.
Now maybe Burton and the scriptwriters had a vision for what they wanted to do with future Bat-films after 89. (They had the foresight to introduce Dent in the first movie after all.) But for whatever reason---too much Burton influence in Returns, too much studio execs/toy companies influence in the later films, that plan went off the rails.
