My post may sound like nerd rage but my main issue for not liking the show is that I simply don't feel the writers are up to the task. Apart from the changes they (sometimes inexplicably) make, they mainly just have a very poor sense of narrative and flow. They adapt the main points (checklist-style, as I said, and this mostly includes the dialogues), and inbetween they will stick a made-up 8-minute scene with two secondary characters that drags on for eternity, breaking up all flow. And this, with time being at a premium! There was really no need to have Pycelle doing exercises while talking to a whore in the last episode of the last season (if I recall correctly which one it was), for example, with so much else that needed to be focused on.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, anyhow. With regards to my "grandiose conclusions," there's people here claiming this is already the best TV show of the century!! What makes that any more acceptable than what I'm saying? GAF is always like this with something when it comes out, and will later do a 180. I hardly recall any criticism of The Dark Knight when it came out, and now it's like the complete opposite. I think in hindsight people here will probably end up admitting GOT wasn't all that good. Maybe it'll improve, but this episode seemed like more of the same to me, and what I saw last season just wasn't very compelling even as a standalone product.