I can't fathom how people expect the undead to win anything when they have about 5 mins of screen time a season. This is a political drama not a zombie apocalypse show.
Okay, I am going to go *ackssulhhaalllyy.jpg* here
First, the SHOW is Game of Thrones, the BOOK SERIES is A Song of Ice and Fire - with a singular book called A Game of Thrones...the first book...the smallest... the furthest out from "now"
GRRM has shown on MANY MANY occasions even from when "he was not popular" aka the first 2-3ish books or so... the first three are "the OG" in 1996,1999,2000 - you know, when "high fantasy" stuff was still very firm in the NERD land- anywho- GRRM has shown that he changes shit based on fan's, he never admits it, but he demonstrates it with every damn book.... if you go back in the wayback, he "changed" several things that were set up with 99% accuracy because "the fans figured it out".
Authors usually have to have "something" to get the reader into their world - some will just do it straight and fully rely on characters, world and their specific story to tell- but many will do a "niche" GRRM's was to "use the war of the roses" as a historical backdrop to his world - the world who's large narrative is A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE- and 100% IMO all the political stuff was nothing but a hook to get readers into the series, and it worked, and it took over.
So he adjusted, and obviously this was the correct choice financially etc. this is bigger than anything he ever thought it would be.
the problem is, the start and end and the "core" IS ICE ZOMBIES VS FIRE DRAGONS - the iron throne is just a motivator for all the involved set pieces until the real threat comes... the problem is, he has just been feeding people the sweets and sugars they want, and now its time for the "real meal" and there is no time- nor is there really an appetite for it.