The problem with the point is that the removal of Neal is what caused him to not be part of those stories. They did not properly end the series like story of Rumpel finding and reuniting with his son. That was never properly resolved. Neither was Emma’s anger with him and their history, what Neal did to her, that was never properly resolved on the show. Also, Henry never got to know Neal. Neal never discussed his mother with Belle. He never properly discussed his time on Neverland and what Hook did to him with everyone. Neal knows Mulan and Mulan is coming back for the one off LGBT episode. Neal’s father was the dark one and so was Henry’s mother. They went further into Emma’s past in the queen’s of darkness arc and Neal was the only person that knew her back then and knew about what she did and her past in any detail. Neal would actually know how Emma was feeling and why she was upset with Snow and Charming for setting her apart, because something very similar happen to him when Rumpel became the dark one and set Bae apart by threatening anyone who came near him. That was why Bae was separated from Rumpel, there could have been a very nice scene where Neal brought up what happened in his past to Snow and Charming and said don’t push her away. There is seriously so much depth that will forever be left untapped because Neal is gone. Neal who knows everyone and is connected to everyone and is the character to have known Emma, the main character, when she was young, and who has a very similar story arc just his father was dark and Emma’s was light and yet they both made similar choices. It just doesn’t make sense to me to suggest that the story isn’t there. It just writes itself when i think about it for two seconds.