I think the answer to the OP's question is pretty simple but controversial. Simply put, some people in Western - and especially American - media have an idea of what it means to adapt something to match their perceptions of a specific and relatively narrow slice of what constitutes a modern audience. This includes rewriting the "problematic" portions, squashing the component parts together into a pliable dough, and then baking it into a shape that matches their own personal views and fantasies, at great expense. Fidelity to the books and pleasing the existing fanbase they hired by buying the rights to the IP, could not have been more than 4th priority. It's not a simple matter of adaptation. The stink raised by book fans about the omission of Bombadil in LOTR for instance was minor - most readers understood that it did not serve the core plot and time was limited. But what has been done in the show is far beyond such runtime-trimming measures. Fundamental character arcs have been completely transformed, often with even the core themes of those arcs completely changed. Major plot points which were both important when they happened, and would be important later, are simply omitted or even worse, changed for no obvious reason. New subplots are added, despite complaining that they were constantly lacking runtime budget. Core story themes usurped and flipped on their head. That's not an adaptation. That's a thorough reimagining, a full reboot of the series with a different author. Too late to go back now. It is what it is, and we have to accept that. I have - I've mostly forgotten the tv show exists, I just happened to see something on reddit this morning that triggered a memory, and I wanted to stop by to see how things were going. The show was definitely written and produced for a certain demographic, and if you are among that crowd, then you have reason to rejoice. I do not begrudge you your enjoyment. I simply wish that it had not come at the cost of a faithful adaptation, of which we were unlikely to get more than one good shot at this decade, at least. We will always have the books, and I will need to be content with them.