Here is my new benchmark:

Does the author seem to take their authoring seriously? Do they seem dedicated to finishing their series?

Yes to both example:the king of serious authoring, Brandon Sanderson. At any point one can look at his website and see exactly where he is at with multiple series. He also does a lot of conventions and Facebook chats and other social media moments.

Yes to the first/no to the second: GRRM. He does enjoy writing in general and loves to shore up his main magnum opus with side stories to flesh out the world. However, I think a combination of being too much of a Gardener and the show having an ending has killed his ability to finish the series.

No to both: Rothfuss. Not only has he scammed with his charity but he seems no closer to doing anything. Lol.

The first 3 books yes. The last 2? Eh…. Debatable. It’s obvious GRRM has painted himself in a corner with the brush of antipathy and the paint of too many plots and not enough planning.

My feeling for awhile has been that Dresden is turning into the major antagonist of the entire series.