Well I think we're reading very different S8's and before that very different TV series (with some overlap). I like to think of it as a tribute to the complexity of both sources that they can support such divergent readings (glibly).

There's no significant gaps between my two versions. You've always said that continuity wasn't a big issue if the emotional arcs and thematics were working so I wonder if the real discontinuity lies there. If you read the TV series as a story of redemption through love we can both agree that S8 is not about that. If the show was more a story about loss and connection and finding a place in the world then my S8 would fit right in.