The first six books were good because Jordan was just writing a fast, plot-driven series that was entertaining. Nothing serious, nothing literary, and, Jordan's own pompous pretensions aside ("it's like War and Peace"), no one took it seriously. It was clearly not literature. It was genre fiction. Who cares about it being derivative? People picked it up precisely because it was derivative, with a few twists.

The problem was that around Book 7 he actually did get full of himself, and he let the series get away from him. Too many needless plotlines, too many needless characters, too many dress descriptions, too many horse names, too much bad dialogue and too little plot development. Damn, the only thing that ever was good about Wheel of Time was the plot development. I didn't read for the "compelling characters" or "gripping drama". I read for the explosions and the cool battles.

And yes, Jordan did drag it out, because he realized he could milk the series to build a bigger summer home and what not. Once he was diagnosed with amyloidosis he realized that he needed to pick up the pace again, and honestly, the series got good again for precisely one book (Knife of Dreams). It was an echo of the fun that characterized books 1-6.

The idiot who wrote the linked review, however, is clearly of subpar intelligence and comprehension abilities. I agree with your criticisms of him.