It’s so pathetically transparent why they’re suddenly backtracking on deleted scenes being canon.
It’s infuriating, because the fact that they even wrote that scene in the first place, that it stayed in the script through the many edits that a script goes through, that they dedicated time and money to actually shooting it, that means it’s something that matters to the storytellers. But God forbid they upset the special snowflakes they need to pander to these days, so it got cut from the episode. And now they have to change their policy on deleted scenes being canon because GOD FORBID that the special snowflakes are made to accept that Neal is still someone who Emma loves. The showrunners sold out the integrity of the story they originally wanted to tell, and as a result the quality of the show went to crap, so the result is that one subset of the fandom are the only ones still super enthused about the show, so the showrunners have to keep pandering to them, or else they’re screwed.
It’s really quite sad.