To support the actions we saw play out i think A&E should have confirmed the hand was magicked.
I quite like the fact that it’s ambiguous. It’s given us a nice little discussion point. I’m still plumping for the double bluff theory, pretty much for all the reasons you said.
The other reason I think the hand *was* cursed, is that when they were at the Apprentice’s house, Rumple ordered Hook to rough up the old man and Hook didn’t have any hesitation, he just went all ‘grr’ and did it. The old man hadn’t done anything to Hook, so if the hand *wasn’t* curse, why would Hook be so eager to hurt him? The other instances were Hook grabbing Will b/c he spilled the drink on Emma, punching Will b/c Will shoved Hook off him and stabbing Rumple for obvious reasons. All those other times he stopped himself from being all ‘grr’ and was scared by what his hand did but against the old man it was Rumple says jump and Hook jumped. I don’t think his actions were just b/c Hook wanted to fulfil the deal.
If one is to engage with the primordial forces of darkness, one must expect a little social awkwardness