I tend to think the Gilgamesh story is the Akkadian version of the Hebrew original, with distortions added via “telephone game” effect.
Yeah, you've got it right there... :-) exactly so ...
Yes, I think I did get it right. The Biblical account would be the more fact-oriented original which starts out correct at the beginning of the telephone game and Gilgamesh, coming much later, would have evidence of the fanciful embellishments and encroaching incoherencies of multiple repeaters of the story. And in fact, that is precisely the comparative character of the two stories, strongly suggesting Hebrew originality.