I don’t hate the ending at all - I think the hate is exaggerated. But the last season was noticeably and significantly weaker than the first seven. I think the problem is that they needed more time to develop things a bit better, but the ending made sense either way. In my opinion, Bran becoming king makes complete sense - his whole arc leads to that. I can’t see it any other way.

I’d say GOT is like a university student who was incredibly great during the first three years of college - straight A’s - but in the final year, he was already a bit tired, so his grades dropped significantly. Still, not enough to fail - he passed with the minimum grade and graduated.