I know it's not as interesting as boozums of GoT, but you do understand why we complain, right? It's only when things on screen are arranged to conveniently happen in same time and they can't possibly complete within the same timeframe, even in make belief world of dragons and unburnt queens, which is actually very detailed and physical in terms of time and space. It's lazy writing and nobody wants another Lost or Leftovers finale.
At this stage, with two episodes till the end of the season we can't do much about it - stuff is already badly paced, really badly - if you don't feel it now, you'll feel it some day when you re-watch all seasons - but this blissful ignorance from the writers works both ways - with only 8 episodes to go, beginning next week characters in GoT would have to start dying at holocaust scale for any decent resolution to their stories. Otherwise it will turn out we've been watching irrelevant, unresolved plots and threads for years or the show will really have to end with Bran waking up from a coma after falling from tower to discover everyone is still alive and fine and all of it was but a dream.
Having said that - I liked ep5, probably my favourite this season.
If it helps maybe you should think of the story threads as overlapping in their timelines as opposed to running contiguous? I don't think the time frames are nearly so badly out as you seem to.
Not sure why characters will have to die to finish their storyline? I'm sure lots of things won't be tied off neatly with a bow tie. It's not Eastenders or some crappy soap you're watching where someone has a secret affair and it has to come out eventually. Characters will take secrets to the grave or just carry on with their lives once the events of the show are done. For example, Jon will never have that last talk with Ned or Cat will never express her guilt over how she treated him.
This episode was definitely a move the chess pieces around the board ep. Liked it a lot - lots of meetings, reunions.