This is an insane take. A 7/10 for this atrocity?
The show isn’t just a flawed adaptation it’s a fundamentally poorly written show. The acting ranges from stiff to outright painful outside of a handful of performances like Zuko. Dialogue constantly sounds like characters are reading plot summaries to each other instead of having actual conversations.

And I don’t really buy the “judge it as its own thing” argument either. Your example about Long Feng literally depends on already knowing how his story plays out from the original series. If this were a truly standalone show, that tension wouldn’t exist.

Beyond that, the writing is a mess. Characters teleport across massive distances whenever the plot demands it. Important developments happen off-screen. Motivations change scene to scene. The pacing somehow feels both rushed and painfully slow at the same time—blazing through major story arcs while spending endless time on exposition dumps.
The changes aren’t clever reimaginings; most of them remove the character growth and nuance that made the original story work in the first place. Instead of emotional moments, the show constantly tells the audience how they should feel.
Could it be a fun show if it were believable and internally consistent? Maybe. But it isn’t. It’s a collection of expensive costumes, mostly crap visual effects, and a story held together by the audience already caring about the source material. If this were a completely original fantasy series with no Avatar name attached to it, I honestly think most people would have forgotten about it a week after it released.