Unless by “general plotpoints” you mean like an elevator pitch of what happens in the season, I guess from that very abstract view you are right ;)

I mean yes, you may not be aware of the development of the show but basically GRR Martin gave them basically a list of checkpoints that happened in the most general sense ie important character deaths, who stays alive at the end to control the kingdom, important character events and/or etc. D&D basically made their own path to these checkpoints and sort of improv’d the rest of it. Jon being revived, Dany going mad, Bran ending up on the throne. These are all likely meant to happen if the books ever come out. The problem is always the execution. I know book fans have some book exclusive characters (Lady Stoneheart, Patchface, etc) but realistically they probably aren’t that important in the grand scheme of the series.