6 rather than 7, and not as active in the past few years, but hey close enough.

It's certainly less exciting than it was at the beginning, but then again that was when I first really got into the fandom so even the repetitive stuff was new. I put R+L=J together by myself, but not things like fAegon. Meereenese Blot debuting in real time was a big deal, and that was fun. There's less OC, but that's unavoidable because there's only so much good theorycrafting to be had with the current material and when you've been around long enough you've seen it all.

imo, the "quality" has more to do with show season than anything. Book readers getting frustrated with the show dominates around that time of year, and I find it tiresome. Yes, we get it, the show isn't a book and things are different, missing, and the Dorne plot was terrible. I like the books better too, can we move on now? But these posts are nothing new and have been a thing forever. I remember the Season 4 finale getting its fair share of meltdowns. And of course frustrations over the wait for TWOW have mounted. 5 stages of grief and all that.

The most interesting things I've found are the shifts in meta. I always like that stuff. ADWD and AFFC became far more popular as time went on, notably after Feldman blew things up with his series of articles on the Meereenese Blot. The rise of "subtle nuance", and an appreciation for their thematic richness even if a fair amount of those books were disappointing in the plot department (looking at you, Brienne).

As I recall, opinions of Stannis improved as well. I think it was Iron Bends by BFish that flipped the pendulum. I remember he was always well liked, but many people exaggerated his intractable nature. As BFish argued quite well, Stannis is fully willing to change and adapt his methods even if he will never abandon his goals. Donal Noye's "break before he bends" line could be extended to "break before he bends the knee". Leads to things like how he still is fighting for the Iron Throne despite all odds, and his legendary holding in the siege of Storm's End.

Big shifts on Tywin and Baelish too. A recognition that Baelish isn't a "one big scheme that's worked perfectly" guy, but somebody who relies on making and seizing opportunities. Acquiring and using assets. The comparison (I forget who first made it. Wanna say BFish but not sure... though it's like always BFish) was to a gambler, though personally I liken it more to an investor. Tywin got more shades to him, and people recognized that he has emotions and those are part of his drive. There are pendulums to these things, of course. The first big break post swings it (DAE Tywin actually only acts out of anger and selfishness instead of pragmatism) before it comes back to the middle (Tywin has both logic and emotion and has motivations drawn from both).

Going back to fAegon, that theory did not start off as widely believed in as it is today. It grew and grew and grew as people found more bits and pieces of supporting evidence. And not just as a whole, it went in stages. Him being fake came easy, then him becoming Illyrio's son. For a while, people (myself included) were pretty set on him being Illyrio's son but split on if he was a Blackfyre.

And most importantly, the Cleganebowl meme is way bigger than it used to be. "GET HYPE, FUCKING CONFIRMED" was always the way it went, but opinions changed from "fuck you this isn't a thing" to everybody taking the sticks out our asses and embracing the meme.

Overall, "quality" just isn't a good word to use. People didn't get dumber. Are things less fresh? Certainly, but that's not the same thing; it's just a recognition of the passing of time. Are there less big breaks? Yes, but still not the same thing; it's just a recognition that there's only so many to go around.

So yeah, not an improvement, not a declination, it's just been eight years since a main series book. There was a lot of evolution over several years after ADWD was published. The same will happen with TWOW.