Nice write-up of your trip. I've driven from Islamabad to Gilgit and back, along the Karakoram highway. It is scenic, but really, it's just rocks and more rocks, not a lot of trees. When I went in the early 90s, the road was very rough, and we couldn't drive faster than 35-40 mph, due to lots of big bumps and potholes. Oh, and Pakistani trucks coming the opposite direction on a 1.5 lane highway. Interesting for sure... Gilgit was more interesting, but it's hard to get there and back. Like you said, the plane is often cancelled, and with a huge backup of people, getting on another plane is difficult.

The villages along the way are small, interesting to look at but are pretty poor (so if you stop, you're gonna be the center of attention), and there weren't any amenities along the way (at least back then).

You're write-up was pretty much spot on from my experience. My parents were living there at the time, so we drove our own vehicle and didn't need to use tours or private drivers.

Oh, and I got typhoid on that trip.

We did do a multi-day camel trip through the Thar Desert, and a boat ride on a river for a day, those were interesting.