It particularly shows the show-runners null knowledge or at least contempt for the original material. It was a big plot point on The Legend of Korra. Flying that way was a mythical and highly advanced airbending technique, confined only to the most enlightened sages. It was the whole point of Zaheer as an antagonist. But Aang just goes up and down in the air. And I just realized that Aang didn't waterbend a single time in the whole season, not even in that training scene when Katara practices with the scroll. Which is funny, because reading this thread's positive praise, rather than improving my opinion of the adaptation, it is actually making me like it slightly less.