Well of course it was "a spectacular play on human emotions". But it has definately been done before. Don't get me wrong I love GS/D to death but it's in no way unique. You are very mistaken.

They didn't bring in Heine for the sake of bringing in characters, they brought him in because his death has caused impact on the entire Minerva crew. I also don't understand why you dislike "the chaos of ep 28". This "chaos" is not new to Destiny. I still do not understand what your issue is. Besides that, I believe Destiny is better than Seed if you think about the fact that half of Seed was spent establishing the universe and letting Kira face off against random opponents to get to know himself better (Seed probably has some anime record when it comes to amount of characters introduced in an episode only to get killed in the end of it or the next)...

And Destiny doesn't really have more fanservice than Seed. *cough* bouncing Murrue boobs in opening 3/4 of Seed *cough*
Also I dislike calling it fanservice. What's wrong with a bit of nudity? If a show is supposed to be a play on human emotions, arousing should be a part of it... teehee.