Last I checked, this isn't a historical drama - it's a fantasy show. So, it's not surprising we got a little plot armor for some main characters. I'm not really sure what people wanted? By the comments on this thread, some appeared to want Jon, Davos, Tormund, Jaime and Brianne to die in episode 3. I'm not sure having a final 3 episodes of the three (wo)man weave involving just Danny, Cersei and Sansa would be all that fun.
Had the showrunners had another 2-3 seasons, I'm sure this battle wouldn't have been so abrupt. But, when you have 4 episodes left to deal with the Night King, Cersei/Euron, some potential Danny/Jon ruler drama and all of the normal arcs for Jamie, Brianne, Tyrion, Sansa, etc - you can't use 3-4 episodes on just the Night King.
Overall, I enjoyed this episode and my only real complaint is with the lighting. I get wanting to setup the darkness for a "fog of war" feeling, but we needed a little more light in some of the fighting scenes to see who was actually a good guy vs a wight
