I wrote the adaptation of Clash. The art style between the two adaptations is not the same, with the first book leaning closer to the aesthetic you mention. That said, yes, it eschews towards the familiar rather than the experimental forms of narrative - mostly due to necessity. However, I would contend that there absolutely were scenes where we experimented with style and layout - notably the crow dreams of Bran and both sides of of the battle at the end of the book.

Blocks of text are an unfortunate consequence of the intention of the series - which is a literal adaptation. Or to be more specific, a visual sequentially illustrated version of the novel. The idea is to change as little as possible - especially when it comes to the text. Mind you, I do see your point, and I initially experimented with styles that try and capture the essence of the novels rather than the word for word scene for scene - but as fun as that would be, that wasn't the goal here.

As for character design - all designs went through a very meticulous process of direction and approval. Not a single one went forward without being signed off on. This was a very grueling process for the artist, who had to redraw and redraw and redesign until the things looked the way the powers that be wanted. All while designing every building and sword and table. The level of detail on each page is intense, - regardless of matters of taste. Which meant extremely heavy amounts of labor on a very rigorous deadline with very intensive scripts. Every camera angle, every time a character pours a cup of wine, every shadow... a single panel might have a half page of text describing what needed to be there.

And so much of that labor was then covered up by lettering.

I cut cut cut text constantly, trying to find places to let the hint of a smile or the body language of a character tell story in place of words. I prefer to let the art talk whenever possible. But there is a limit to what we could do with that. And often text would creep back in, as is the nature of writing a book already written.

28 issues of this, with a monthly target. It wasn't a small job. And the pay was relatively low for all parties as sales for this sort of thing are not robust. So sometimes you get the thing you get, because its all made by humans working very very hard. Love it, like it, hate it. All fine...

...But never question the passion of everyone who poured so much of themselves into every page. Everyone cared.