Staying off topic for one more post....
I have only read the books once, and in the last couple of years. (I'm saving my reread for a time when I know ADWD is at the printers.
) So the following comes from possible a greater degree of ignorance about the series than yours, since you've read it more recently.
What I have been doing, though, is trying to sort out the POVs in my own writing and applying a truly-focused POV style. As we all know, ASoIaF is very POV-focused and GRRM has gone out of his way to stress this, by naming his chapters after the POVs. So what does this mean?
As I've argued more than once in Aspiring Writers, a strong POV approach limits the experience of the reader, unless the author makes specific allowances. The limitation is this: the POV only thinks (and so can narrate) about certain things.
As I drive about my local area, I do not have a running commentary in my head about what I'm seeing. I take notice of the traffic, in general, and the traffic signals in particular (see later). If something is different, such as work being done on a house that wasn't being done the last time I saw it, I'll notice it. I might even ponder how something hasn't changed for a while, if the mood takes me. What I couldn't do is transcribe my conscious impressions of the journey and turn it into a well-described travelogue, letting those who've never been here visualise the place. And it shouldn't be very hard: most of us living in the UK will have seen very similar scenes. (What I could narrate in detail is the number of times the darped traffic lights have turned red just as I've approached them, even though I've been sticking religiously to the speed limits, and how it all went to pot a few years back with some road closures - not on my route - that changed the traffic patterns for a month or two: now the lights are green for ages to allow non-existent traffic flows to pass, meaning that they're red for me.... *cough*)
This could be considered as the next level of problem up from self-description (You know the how it is: all those useful mirros that our POV characters pass by when they need to describe their faces.) It isn't that the images are not in front of the POVs' eyes, it's that they are not being
perceived as they would if new and strange, or if, for some other reason, they are nearer the front of the POV's mind's eye.
An example: I'm the kind of person** who likes lists of facts. I like to know how many people live in this or that place, for instance. But even I don't think about this when I'm doing other things, like driving, or like thinking about my next task or appointment.
It's the same for the POVs: they are concerned with their positions in the game of thrones: to prosper; to avoid losing their advantage. In these circumstances, the adult POVs will not be thinking about every village and town, or about how many people live, or lived, there. (The Mountain that Rides may think about the number that he and his followers have killed on a raid, I suppose. Or maybe not) The towns are milestones on the journey, places of shelter or, possibly, danger. they are not items to be ticked off a list. if, however, there was a POV doing a similar job to those compiling the Domesday Book, we'd know just how many people live in Westeros. I think we'd all be surprised by the answer, as would Tyrion, Jaime, Catelyn, Eddard....)
The crowds of people are noticed, by the way, when they are blocking the route ahead or are tunring into a mob. The numbers gathered locally may then be of interest.
** - We all have our strange obsessions.
