This is brilliant, and it would explain so much! And I agree that the most interesting story arch is the one that has nothing to do with the novels (and the entire show shared very little with the novels, outside of some names).

I said that I liked few of the characters; I don't know if that improves after the first season, but like you, I'm traumatized enough by S1 to be uninterested in watcing S2. I realized I'd spent the last 3 episodes literally shouting at the TV because of characters being so unreasonably stupid, and if there's a literary sin I can't forgive it's characters doing stupid things as a plot device. "We need tension in this scene, so we'll have this character refuse to get in the escape pod until the last minute, for some trivial reason." It is infuriating, sloppy, weak writing, and I refuse to watch it.