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Speaking for myself, and as an anime only viewer, I liked this episode. Sure, at first I was slightly confused by what seemed to be a timeskip to a time a bit further ahead than where last week's episode ended, but the episode itself made sense and got the point of across of how Kirito, somewhere along the road, had companions and saw them die without being able to help. I imagine this will help shape his character in regards to how he handles his interactions with other players in the future, and I thought it was pretty well done. Of course, the fact the episode looked great (as usual for this show) helps quite a bit.
As for the whole debate of 'getting attached to these characters'... really, more screentime isn't what makes a bunch of deaths any more or less meaningful and/or impactful. If you watch a certain Adachi baseball anime out there, Adachi shows you exactly how much it's possible to make someone care for a character which you have just only been introduced to. All you really need is good writing. And... well, in this episode of SAO (and I assume this holds true for the LN as well), all these guys had gigantic death flags on them from the moment they first popped up, so I wasn't expectingd to be surprised or get hit by the 'impact' of their death. The way I see it, they've fulfilled their purpose for this story, and it's not adding a bit more fluff and screentime that would magically turn this into some sort of amazing dramatic moment. Still, that's not saying it was bad, because I still thought it was pretty brutal for Kirito (and Sachi), and I think they really nailed it getting the thing about how these people will succumb to desperation in this environment just like any other human being would. And that's... well, probably more along the lines of what I felt the episode was trying to do than actually turn the deaths of some clearly marked characters into some surprising/touching moment.
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