Honestly, I think you're on to something with looking at the pacing. I think I prefer the more frenetic pacing of the other books. (I'm actually reading proven guilty right now, and I think it might be my favorite.)

And no, the conversation between Harry and his father didn't seem similar to the conversation with Kakashi and his father beyond male character talking to daddy dearest. For one thing, we got a hell of a lot more information from Harry's dad, and it was a much better written. Also there was no lame deux ex machina and Schrodinger's Harry BS going on.