Some of the most expensive fantasy ever put on screen felt emptier than the more limited work that came before it. That is not because viewers secretly prefer cheapness. It is because abundance is a terrible substitute for judgment and good storytelling
Early Game of Thrones had some money, but it also had limits. The scenes had to drive the plot forward, and were mostly character oriented. It was mostly discussions in between characters, with little action scenes, few battles (none in season 1 really) and mostly showing subtle hints at what was going on. They focused on the plot though, the very books provided that substance. Later seasons increasingly looked like a production that believed scale itself could carry emotional weight. Bigger battles arrived. More event energy arrived. The feeling of story got thinner. The decisions were dumb.
That is the useful lesson. Constraint does not magically create talent. Budget doesn't need to be the constraint, but it helps. It forces prioritization and make weak judgment harder to hide. If you cannot spend your way out of a weak scene, you have to decide what the work actually depends on. Is it a story about people, motives, betrayal, longing, fear, and cost? You can't just CGI your way with cool battles and action to make the viewer feel something.
Abundance changes the temptation. Once you can flood the screen with scale, it becomes easier to stop solving the harder problems by thinking. You start just throwing money at the problems, more CGI, more actors, better sets. Weak scenes get covered with movement. Thin character motivation gets buried under momentum. The audience may still feel stimulated, but stimulation is not the same thing as dramatic confidence. A work starts looking expensive precisely when it no longer trusts its own human core.
That is why smaller fantasy can feel healthier. When a show cannot lean on constant climax, dialogue has to matter. Characters drive the show, not action scenes. A room, a costume, or a silence has to be very well thought before made, so a lot of detail goes into it. The point is not that low budgets are purer, they can also be quite bad. The point is that limits expose whether the creators know what matters when the machinery cannot save them.
We can see that in Game of thrones universe itself. After not learning one thing from the horrible finale of GOT, HBO decided to throw even more money to make a TV Show with even more dragons and even MORE CGI. Needless to say, fans are unimpressed and the fandom is nearly giving up on ASOIAF
Until...
A knight of the Seven Kingdoms. If you haven't watched it, do. It's amazing. Such short, few episodes and they're all filled with detail. Actors are very passionate about their role, and nearly all of them are not famous (Bertie Carvel being an exception).
The plot makes sense, the characters make sense, the few fighting scenes are VERY VERY well thought, the armors and weapons make sense... Everything is great. And it makes you feel something, it makes you feel moved and inspired.
Conclusion
I'm not paid by A knight of the seven kingdom's PR department. I wish, since I'm doing it for free. But compared to the latter seasons of GOT and entirety of the House of the Dragon, it has been a most pleasant surprise. It shows the greatness that can be achieved with less budget when you focus on good storytelling and character. It shows what play writers knew all the way since Greek times. That the story and the characters are the key. Not the CGI, not the action.