GoT's early seasons might have been good at personal drama, but they were crap at politics and worldbuilding. They get a pass on a lot of that, because they were cribbing off a better developed story, and a lot of what they did not develop was arguably stuff better left out, but they used that as an excuse to cut away from the source material a lot and almost never for the better. It's pretty plain in hindsight, they missed a lot of the character stuff that was going on, and had no interest in humanizing the characters who were not their favorites.

And even in the "good" seasons, the dialogue often pandered to the viewer, and things were done for 21st century sensibilities, not in the interest of maintaining any kind of consistency. These were the seasons that made me realize what the feminists had been whinging about all this time with objectification and violence against women. When HotD wants to make a point about violence against women, they show how the society is set up so that even a sympathetic, well-meaning man like Viserys can perpetuate it, when he kills his wife to save their kid. When GoT wants to depict abuse or exploitation of women, they make sure to get some tits out, and it's generally done by OTT evil or brutish characters which allows the viewer to see that kind of overtly menacing figure as the problem. Most people come away from GoT thinking Joffrey or Cersei or (unfortunately) Catelyn or Sansa is the problem, or that if Ned or Robb had been a little bit smarter, everything would have been hunky-dory. HotD makes it clear that there are grounds for both sides' positions and the problem is the whole system, that its priorities and hierarchies are what bring on these problems. If any one individual is responsible for the civil war, it's Viserys, who comes across as generally benevolent and well-meaning. GoT does nothing to get across that message, and it's incredibly nihilistic. HotD doesn't have the supernatural struggle that will helps provide the counterpoint to the political cynicism, but at least it's not shitting all over that aspect, as GoT did from the first (ITB, we got Waymar Royce facing the Others bravely, and the recognition that he was boy no longer, but a man of the Night's Watch; on the show he is whacked horror-movie style, and like with a WoT character, you have to extrapolate character for him based on the books). GoT was addicted to shocks, and was sadistic toward the characters, such as by showing how evil Littlefinger was and how he was going to betray Ned, or by piling up happy stuff right before the Red Wedding. HotD still cares about its characters to find humanity even when people are absolutely wrong. Things like Aemond killing Lucerys, Alicent's plotting for her PoS son, or Rhaenyra's conception of her sons, all make you understand the logic of the characters, without glossing over how it's causing harm. Meanwhile, what is Littlefinger or Varys actually after on GoT? The former just seems to like messing things up for shits and giggles, on the assumption that he will always win, and latter, in hindsight, seems to be inexplicably loyal to whichever side has Tyrion on board and is most likely to listen to Tyrion, even as Tyrion himself goes from failure to failure, from season 3 onward, while the show keeps treating him as if he has been very smart & successful the whole time.

To put it another way, GoT's adaptational approach compares to a supermarket tabloid, versus HotD's objective investigative journalism. One is only interested in the most lurid and sensational version of the story they can squeeze out and will happily omit or bury anything that doesn't fit, while the other helps you make up your own mind about the situation, without taking sides or picking favorites.