i think the more of the show somebody watches before they read the books, the more they'll prefer the show. an example for why is that there is a character whose arc is not fully understood. in the show it appears that character is going to take on the role of several arcs in the books, yet in the books that character will likely do something else entirely. the arc that character takes on in the show is likely to be very cool (the stuff is great in the books as is), and people who havent read the books will say they prefer that particular arc for that character and when informed about what happened in the books they will likely say it worked better in the show even if that wouldn't be true if they had been introduced to the arcs in the books first.

that's about as abstract as i can make it. tbh i didnt like the books for the stories i had already known from the show. it was after getting into new stuff that the books became more enticing. far more than that though, is how epicly cool the fan theories are. i might argue those are better than the books by a longshot. i mean, the more i know about planetos, the more i shake my head at grrm claiming he's going to end the series with 7 books. he needs a good dozen books to get to the bottom of the world he created.