Yea, it became clear to me that the writer was only part of the genius behind season 1. There were definitely some great episodes/scenes/moments throughout the season, but it was very rough and inconsistent. I'm sure the HBO prez is partially right, that it was rushed out, but the season 1 director probably helped a bit there as well.
HBO insisting he bring in more help is probably based on the same thing, that he needs other writers/creative types to help balance him out a little bit. I didn't hate season 2 quite as much as most did, it was just a little boring in parts to me. Although, the endings were so depressing and unnecessary. It was like he just decided to fuck all the characters over because 'lulz drama!' but they had very little impact. 'and then.. everyone died or their lives sucked! Isn't that.. DRAMATIC!!'
Gotta say, that shootout episode was, imo, better then any individual episode in season 1 (cept maybe daddario's tits.. gawd dahm) though. It's just the overall story and the performances of season 1 were so consistently out of this world amazing.