You make some good points
Gillian and the ridiculous attention to detail like in mad men with weiner are what drive the show creatively and then the Cranston Paul etc elements also pull off a perfect Storm . At this point in the show people are so divided (in a good way ) on Walt and it takes a special kind of chemistry to pull that off .
It's different than the sopranos where I doubt most people wanted tony killed since his whole world was corrupt while instead Walt is diving deeper and deeper into villainy both out of necessity and hubris .
And to top it off we all take different things out of the show like Gillian said last season several times how he sees Walt as this monster and in the season thread we debated this like the whole season lol . And the way gillian changed the story and show as it progressed when he saw better options with jesses becoming a costar instead of dying early , the Twins , gus etc .....Sorry to ramble but as my favorite show it'll take alot to make a adaptation