I'm 9 episodes in and I'm quite hooked to the show, although as you said its a bit long and feels sorta Game of Thronish in the sense that you get tired after watching two, max three episodes. What I love most about the series is the way they really pass on to the viewer the feeling that the human body means nothing, everyone who isn't rich has loads of scars everywhere and don't seem to care at all about damaging their "sleeves". As for the rich, Bancroft even completely smashes one of his clones just to make a point. After watching this for several hours I emerge wondering if I shouldn't just not care about anything since if I die I will just get rebooted. A weird feeling to say the least. But anyhow, the writing can be improved indeed but this is a show above par and I agreed with pretty much everything you described. Good review!