I would suggest you re-read the points on the amount of energy storage possible again as a first step.

That said, to your point there is a UK firm which is trying to repurpose hard rock shaft mines with ground level winches down straight, large shafts. Not getting a lot of love, as unused mines that meet the criteria of not having crumbled, flooded or shifted so that the mine shafts are big enough, deep enough and vertical enough with solid ground on top is small.

And actually useful gravity storage, pumped hydro, is reusing or trying to reuse old coal mines in some places.

In general, you want a head height of 400 meters or more to maximize the h in m*g*h and you want a self-distributing fluid that's dirt cheap and easy to pump as your mass.