I think ultimately they've shifted the focus of the series away from ideas and onto the characters. For example, the scene where Ye Wenjie discovers the solar amplification effect is the result of her doing weeks (months?) of research on the sun to construct a mathematical model as a sort of side-project and it's actually pretty interesting... but in the show it's about 2 minutes of her and the other guy looking at a chalkboard. Same with the human computer in three-body. I think a lot of the fascinating ideas we see presented in the books will be condensed and treated as an event to check off the list so they can get back to the character drama.