Exactly.

Also worth noting A Game of Thrones came out in 96. In late-90 into early 2000s, a kind of dark pseudo-historical take on epic fantasy was a pretty fresh idea and the nihilistic perspective was unique & largely at odds with the overall tone of fantasy, fiction, and the world at large.

Since the series started we've had ~2 decades of time pass. The dark historical fantasy niche is old hat now. We've seen this done a lot by now, in fact it's pretty much the only kind of multimedia fantasy we get these days that's not coming out of Japan.

The gimmick is stale and anyone who was interested in the books would have to completely reread them to even know what's happening with a new book.

Moreover, people and times change. Does anyone feel optimistic in 2022? Do we need a nihilistic fantasy world where everyone are bastards, or is it bad enough having to live in a world with villains 100x worse than anything in the books?

Can we get a story that sets out to do a thing and delivers on it, instead of endless subversion/deconstruction? Does anyone still have hope GRRM reasonably conclude this series after endless subplots exploded the scope?

Exactly.

Also worth noting A Game of Thrones came out in 96. In late-90 into early 2000s, a kind of dark pseudo-historical take on epic fantasy was a pretty fresh idea and the nihilistic perspective was unique & largely at odds with the overall tone of fantasy, fiction, and the world at large.

Since then we've had ~2 decades worth of cultural change. Does anyone feel optimistic in 2022? Do we need a nihilistic fantasy world where everyone are bastards, or is it bad enough having to live in a world with villains 100x worse than anything in the books? Can we get a story that sets out to do a thing and delivers on it, instead of endless subversion/deconstruction? Does anyone still have hope GRRM reasonably conclude this series after endless subplots exploded the scope?