As a person who hated the books, Rafe's approach to adapting the material was not only valid, but needed.
Which is his prerogative as the person adapting the story.
The realm of 'book-to-screen adaptation' is the only place I've ever seen where people get vociferously angry about adaptors choosing to tell a story they love in a new and different (either slightly or significantly) way, and it's both irrational and ridiculous.