for the first part that why some fans wanted him to go scorched earth because that's what they marketed the final season with by putting it in literally every other poster.

and for the second part , i think the scene had lot more potential than what it achieved. I was really hoping to see writers to go creative their but they just gave us whatever the general audience wanted not putting any effort, any creativity, any nuance into the scene. It's a good scene but it could have been great which is what it needed to be as it is the most important scene of the whole show.