A follow on.
Consider the purpose of this forum. This is a forum for writing, presumably everyone here has some kind of interest in writing, albeit a possibly abstract one. Also consider the arguments that I am making, and whether they are helpful to that end or not.
I am discussing how Martin in particular evokes emotional responses from readers. Not simply stating the he did and that I liked or didn't like it. I am doing this in part to refute the false belief that Martin has good characterization, I don't think he does. But the refutation of this argument is significant. I then suggest Martin establishes emotional depth, and involvement really, in characters through proxy, but the tragic situations the characters are in. If correct, I am taking this beyond a simply discussion of what we likes or didn't like about Martin, but a means of eliciting certain emotions readers, pity, shock, compassion, outrage etc.. This is why I compared Martin to Rowling rather than Tolkien. They both use this mechanism.
The second argument I'm making is that Martin may not be as good plotter or story teller as people believe, and or he didn't know where he was going from the start. Not something a lot of people like the idea of. Once again, consider the implications if I am correct. He is now a very popular, and rich, writer how might not be very good at writing stories that go anywhere. Are you good at writing stories that go somewhere? Probably not, that seems to be most impossible thing for everyone to do, the ending. But what if you can build a fan base and then drag it on for a long time, inflating your fan base and your profits. I would say understanding how to do that is a pretty valuable thing. I would say knowing how to build a fan base that will foam at the mouth when someone says you r not as good as people give you credit for (looking at you knight tour) on a forum is a valuable thing to have. I mean that very seriously.
The implications of my arguments being correct does not provide evidence as to whether or not I am correct. But I think this kind of systematic view of writing is more relevant than simply did we like it yes/no and why.