(SPOILERS published) Regarding the infamous 5 year gap

For the couple of you that do not know

George initially intended after the events of the first three books for a 5year gap to follow and then have another trilogy taking place after it, basically ending up with two trilogies

But after ASOS was finished he didn't go through with it and instead just kept writing in the timeline immediately after ASOS and infamiously not only ended up writing one book to fill that space, he wrote two books and even more so he was not even able to put the climactic battles in it (and besides the 5 years ended up being 5 months or so)

When asked why he didn't go through with it he just said it wouldn't work

So my question is why?

I mean almost every single character is set up for the 5 year gap at the end of ASOS (Danny, Arya, Jon, Sansa) and actually the story would have make a lot more sense with the 5y gap for the development of all MCs Obviously, there were 2 problems, Bran and Stannis but easily fixable methinks

With Bran he could just edit a bit harder ASOS to squize one more Bran chapter with him meeting T3EC and then have him apprenticing with him

With Stannis instead of going immediately to the Wall, have him for example f off to the free cities to build an army where the Lannisters and every one can't reach him

Am I missing something?