They nailed the characters, the story beats, the villains, costumes, everything. I was skeptical after season 2 though I'm not a book purist, but they really know what they're doing. Even constrained by the stupid 8 episode per season limit by Amazon.
And that episode this season is probably one of the best episodes of fantasy television.
You might be right! In fact that's a good point. But they still did not do anything for me... But ai get your point, we got several very good moments amputated, and tbey decided to cut a lot of fun characters too...
I think their choice was mostly pragmatic... They needed to make 8 episodes that would convince the studio to produce a fourth season.
In a non capitalistic art world, your vision would have been the right answer I think...