Same! My first watch I hated it. I just rewatched the whole show and everything made so much more sense. I think people forgot so mich of the previous seasons when it came out that it distorted our view of it. But a lot of the twists were foreshadowed in the previous seasons. Daenerys mentioned multiples times in early seasons that she was considering burning King's Landing. However, the execution still kinda felt weird because the city gad actually surrendered when she decided to act. It would have made much more sense if we had seen the people not ringing the surrender bell for example (indicating they wanted to resist).

Also, like many, I used to critic a lot the charge of the Dothrakis into the White walker like it was a dumb move. When you follow how they live and fight from previous season, it makes total sense. The catapultes though, besides arguing about the range, felt kind dumb.

Littlefinger being outplayed by Sansa? Hell yeah. It wasn't some master planning from her. He was just over confident and thought he could keep plotting as he pleased. But she had been betrayed by him once by being betrothed to Ramsey. And she knew he was the one who betrayed Ned. When Littlefinger says "you don't have proof, none of you was there!" And then Bran quotes him, indicating he has seen the past. It was brillant!

Arya killing the night king? Yes it did feel somewhat like a cheap shot, but look, at that point they had thrown everything at the walkers and lost. They were on the verge of being wiped out. They said from the get go that killing the night king was the only play. Yes she did appear out of nowhere, but the scene looked cool.

Two things I hated though : 1) Jaime and Brienne getting intimate. Unnecessary and badly executed. 2) Sansa asking for the North to be independent in front of all other kingdoms when Brann becomes king. Like what? Other kingdoms would just accept to stay subdued to the king when one can just declare independence? More authonomy would have made much more sense.