I suppose the short answer to all this is “because the writers wanted it that way,” which is lame and yet true all at the same time. 

But let me attempt some logic here and there to see if it holds(ish). 

I’m sure with Snow & David, they wanted to harken back to the pilot, like several moments in the episode. TLKs are generally for breaking curses, but then we saw Henry’s wake Emma up from what looked like it should have been a physical injury, so… 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that getting out of the hat is easier than getting in it and going to a specific realm. I think you just need magic to operate the hat, which Regina had. It did seem weird though because I don’t think we’ve ever seen it done that way. And technically, the hat was inside the castle anyway, so not a huge leap.

As for Emma’s HE, I think it’s complicated (like most people’s?). She wants fundamental things like love and family and stability, but you can’t have that without finding a general acceptance of yourself, which in Emma’s case is her role as savior and the magic she possesses, and that’s far more complex. Those boxes were all pretty much checked, even if sometimes getting them checked was clumsily executed. I think they did show it in their own way, but unlike those of us in fandom reading domestic fic, the GA isn’t necessarily interested in much of that. They might be interested in more than we got, but in general, shows not based around domesticity aren’t going to do much of it. 

The nitpicky stuff I tend to hone in on are the things like, “But where’s the baby (or babies as the case may be)?” and “Has poor Wilby been in a shelter this whole time?” and “Why is Hook wearing his wedding ring and new rings but all his old outfit?” and “Why did no one ask where the fuck Gideon disappeared to after he stabbed Emma?” and “Why do Emma’s beanies magically appear? There’s not a lot of room in those coats to hide a thick beanie?” Stupid shit that probably only I remotely have an interest in. 

I liked that update.  It made me feel so hard I wanted to quit the comic but I'm too invested.  Like I am on a constant quest to find things that will emotionally RUIN ME and for the first time in my life I've seen something too intense for that.

But one thing that actually truly irked me: Some parts were overanimated in the most jarring manner.

-Karkat and Kanaya running

-Karkat falling in the lava in one or two shots

-Quite a bit of the Condesce

Limited animation at this point for Homestuck seems like a stylistic choice,  It could have easily been ramped up in fluidity as the comic went on and even if those bits were choppy, I'll honestly say i think it was a bit much and kind of jarred me out of what was going on a little.

It's one of the stupidest nitpicky things, but we HAVE seen in the past some beautiful fluid animation that was rejected and, honestly, for the good reason that it did not fit in with the rest of the work around it.

(2/6/14)

Friends, season 9, episode 24: Mike discounts Monica's first point in their battle of ping pong by calling her out for illegally touching the table.  Then he repeated touches the table during successive points but does not get disqualified.

(1/23/14)

Friends, season 2, episode 5: Ross is splitting the dinner check-- $28 for 6 people is $33.60 for 5 people.  He claims it's $33.50.  C'MON, MAN!  That's short 50c!  Last I checked, that was not okay in a restaurant.