I’m glad you said this and others agree. I was turned away from this set because the reviews were tarnishing it. Maybe people expected more? I picked mine up at Costco on sale so the price didn’t put me off.
Truly an underrated set. I enjoyed the diversity in building something other than one of the castles, the colouring of this set is unique, it captures many of the rooms from the movies (although admittedly tiny), has great mini figures, finally gives up a DH prt. 1 set. Although some say it’s small, it’s a good medium to large sized set. It was enough to capture what was necessary. I have mine displayed out on my desk and change the configurations from tall to short from time to time.
When I see people complain- I get it, it’s good to be critical and not overhype lego when they cut corners, but some of the sets in these new waves have become quite creative in giving us new scenes. I’m overall happy they attempted it. It was a fun build at the end of the day too.