Well, maybe they do realize that next season will be the final season and then they shouldn’t be bothered with ratings, hence no fanservice. That way, they could afford getting rid of Hook (and Robin and Zelena), bring back Neal, and tell the story they needed to tell from the beginning. May I remind you that Neal and Emma are confirmed to be TL while Hook and Emma are still not confirmed to be TL (if anything they are not TL since if they had been, Zelena’s lips curse would’ve been broken immedietly).
All of this sounds amazing. And definitely could be done. Problem is, as Rumple’s Girl put it, MRJ has another show and NBC is already talking about a second season before the first one has even debuted. So it’s looking like a brief one or two episode appearance for MRJ. I just hope they do it right.