<Is this typical? Is it OK for GT math to be more mental problem solving, conceptual based?>
I don't know whether GT math is typically like that, but the school my kids currently attend does treat it sort of that way, yes.
Before grade 6 or so (depending on ability), there's lots of drilling on math facts to achieve a certain level of fluency. But that's only one piece of the math curriculum; a set of problem-solving textbooks from Singapore is another main piece. Students also start participating in Continental Math League and Math Olympiad problem-solving contests in 3rd or 4th grade.
After the students are proficient in the basics, problem-solving continues to be a big part of the curriculum, especially for the top ability group. The 5th-8th math teacher uses several of the textbooks from Art of Problem Solving along with Algebra or Geometry or whatever the kids are taking (they take online courses for everything above Geometry), and offers extracurricular practice in problem-solving as well, mainly to prepare for the AMC 8 and MathCounts competitions.
For what it's worth, I think my son was well-served by the EPGY math courses he took when he was 6. (He certainly would have been in danger of, as you say, 'having his potential killed by math class' if we had made him stick with what his school was requiring of him.) He had to get practice in the less-conceptual stuff elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to have held him back.
What did you mean by 'practice problems'? Are they in the area of problem-solving, or are they 'drill and kill' on basics? If the latter, maybe your daughter is frustrated by the repetitiveness and her frustration leads to mistakes.
