Yeah the writing is shit, but you gotta admit it's at least still really ambitious. The directing is good, acting is fantastic as always. I don't think that it was one of the worst. The first part was actually good I think ? In Winterfell ?
But yeah the problem is the writing.
But I gotta say, on the debated points :
Jaime is definitely going "back to Cersei" to kill her imo. Of course the D&D didn't revealed he's going to kill her lol. I feel like it's even hinted when he says something like "she's horrible, so do I" or something like that to Brienne. Like "I'll kill her, and I'll get killed doing so, because I deserve to die."
Jon not petting Ghost is sad as fuck, but I kinda get the feeling behind it I think ? It's some kind of poetry (it rhymes), a nod to Arya seeing her wolf in last season. They just looked at eachother, and that's it. Arya and Jon are both lonewolves. (Well, Jon is not you could argue, dude is beloved by everyone and was definitely part of a group of people at the Night's Watch, and with the Wildlings. But I think that's what the showrunners wanted to imply with this scene, he's a lonewolf, its own kind of dude, who feel like he's alone)
Now on the bad things... Bronn... What the fuck was that scene. What was even the point. Dude leaved the money in season 7 in order to save Jaime from the dragon, you know, because, Jaime and Tyrion are actually his friends, and now he comes in like "WHERE'S MY MONEY GODAMIT, I'M ABOUT TO KILL YOU BOTH" and then "ah ! Now that's a deal ! See ya !"
Also the "teleportation" was not a problem for me in season 7, I didn't care. But in this episode... Yeah it was too much. What the fuck happenned.
Also it just blew my mind when I realised in two episodes it'll be over. It's definitely going to be mostly battles right ?... The "politics" will just be some treasons here and there and that's it ? Fuck. Nothing happened in this season. Even the good moments (episode 2, which I find was awesome) were just people doing nothing. The rest of it is people fighting. Shame.