I'm going to post this, just cause it might be a slightly different perspective. I never watched GoT when it aired, I saw the first ep and that was it, didn't enter it and didn't follow anything about until I heard all the complaints online about the end. However, my partner, whom I met 7 years ago, said it was her favourite show and after she got through the last season I said I'd love to watch it with her from the start to share her love for it, more than anything else. Of course I fell in love with it and by season 4 I was trying to catch up with 3Zero figures on the secondary market. I really loved the story arcs of everyone and by the time it got to the final season I was prepared to be disappointed. I asked my partner if she liked or didn't like the ending and, in her words said "It was an ending, and sometimes you don't even get that with a lot of series." but wouldn't really say if she hated it or not, I figured she was being diplomatic and thinking I might pull the plug on if she coloured it too poorly.
We get to the last season and the Long Night or whatever the big battle with the Night King. Loved it all the value of Arya as one of my favourite characters was thoroughly exhilerating. The winding up of that story was something I had no problem with. We got to the end of the season with all the upheavels we all know and I loved it. I asked my partner what people had a problem with and her main argument was the Dany/Jon thing not being a happily ever after. I was flabbergasted ANYone would think that would be any kind of ending given the treatment of any character in the previous seasons. I thought Dany's downward spiral into complete unhinged megalomania was documented as far back as her character went and was an inevitability given all the things that lead up to that point, I mean HOW many times did she have to say 'I'm not the Mad King!' whenever his tale was brought up. And Jon, for the entire series was only ever actually happy when he was with Ygritte, regardless of his other daliances. His return to the free folk was such a perfect way for him to actually have his own life that wasn't being determined by every other character in the show for the first time was wonderful.
The small counsel at the end of the series was a great endcap for so many great characters too. I can't really think of anything I didn't enjoy about the final couple of episodes beyond the Drogon destroying the red keep scenes running a little too long.
Just my opinion based on watching it outside of any other real influences. We went back and watched it all again from the start once we were done too, and I enjoyed it even more the second time through.
Sorry for the long post, had a bit of time on my hands!
You've pretty much summed up exactly how I feel about it as well. Although I did follow the show from the start by buying the Blu Rays of the seasons when they came out.
I have two main gripes with the final season:
1. It was rushed. There's no way around it. The showrunners just wanted to be done with it, because they got the opportunity to make a Star Wars trilogy. George R.R. Martin wanted to see the story spread out over more seasons, HBO was basically giving them as much seasons as they wanted, but they just said: "nah, we're good" and crammed the epic conclusion to this awesome show in six (slightly longer) episodes.
2. The way they completely undid every characterdevelopment Jaime went through, by having him run back to Cersei.
I kind of feel that anybody expecting a happy ending to this show, has been setting him or herself up for dissapointment. In a show where major players die left and right, where pretty much an entire family is wiped out brutally at the Red Wedding, you don't go around expecting a happy ever after. I think the ending we got now is as happy as could be.
Especially after watching the entire show again over the last couple of weeks, I saw it was often alluded to that Dany wasn't always the best ruler. There were hints of "madness" and her being vindictive and cold from very early on. I really don't mind her falling to the Targaryen curse. I would've liked it though if it happened more gradually over the course of one or two seasons. See her gradually becoming as mad as her father was.
The gripes I listed above did make me lose interest in the world of GoT, to be honest. I didn't hate it all of a sudden, but I was kinda dissapointed in the way the final season was handled. It was House of the Dragon that rekindled my love for it, and I'm really glad it did. I loved seeing GoT in its entirety again over the last couple of weeks.