Do the writers recognize the resonance and poetry of certain lines and imagery, or do they just realize that so far using the devices in the book result in better episodes, than when they create their own (sand snakes fighting Jaime and Bronn)?

boiledleather:

I’m not here for the “the writers are bad at this” interpretation, as is probably evident, and since there are plenty of show-only scenes that work beautifully the answer is obviously A as far as I’m concerned.

Isn’t there an undistributed middle there? That the writers are good at some things and bad at others?