I thought the evolution of the horcrux quest mirrored the way Voldemort destroyed his own soul/self to make them. The first Horcrux was the diary, which was extremely powerful and dangerous and capable of 'resurrecting a new Tom Riddle'. The second one was the ring, hidden in a place not many would find, capable of killing anyone who puts it on, it ultimately was the reason Dumbledore died. The third one was the locket, also well hidden and well guarded, yet wasn't cursed in the way the ring was cursed, it did almost kill harry and like the diary, seemed capable of resurrecting it's own Voldemort (the locket is arguably a more dangerous/better Horcrux than the rind, but we do find out about it sooner too). The cup was hidden in Gringotts, a place deemed impossible to rob by common means, yet was not protected by 'dark magic' like the previous two items. The tiara was hidden in the RoR, perhaps because Voldemort was arrogant enough to assume he was the only one who could enter the room to retrieve something (he must have realised people could always use it to hide stuff, yet they never seemed to have retrieved what they had hidden), an incredibly arrogant assumption and weak protection. Nagini was an animal and thus generally considered unfit to make into a horcrux, yet he did so anyway. With each additional horcrux he created he became less human, but more arrogant and careless, convinced of his own superiority.
The sword of griffindor was never really needed to destroy a horcrux, they should just destroy them beyond (ordinary) magical repair. Dark magic fits this definition very well (Snape was capable of 'curing' or 'countering' dark magic, but almost everyone else said wounds caused by dark magic don't heal, even Snape couldn't fully reverse the effects), the fiendfyre thing was rather cheap, but also not totally a deus ex machina. Same with the basilik fang.
I agree that the pacing wasn't brilliant but I didn't think it was in the other books either (book 1 and 4 were worse imo).
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