The entire problem of this show is that the writers don’t sit down and figure out where their characters are at and how they would react to what just happened to them, for example, going to hell, almost dying, being the dark one, having a second child, abandonment issues, then try to figure out what stories they could use to facilitate showing where their characters are at. Instead, they do it backwards. They think of the story they went to do next, like Camelot and then make the characters fit the plot, so that the writers can write about Camelot.
That just does not work. It isn’t, in my opinion, that this show has tired itself out, though at this point it is too late, but that the show does not write character, so it has just become this monotonous thing where the new characters are constantly appearing, characters we don’t care about, and then they show their story and the characters leave without any real growth from the main cast, the characters we actually care about. And most of us care about the characters because in the first few seasons their stories, their decisions, actually drove the plot, but it has been seasons since that was the case.
Now the plot is entirely moved forward by external things that happen to them, like Hyde coming to town or Gideon being kidnapped or the Evil Queen cursing Snow and Charming. The characters did choose to separate the Reginas, but the only consequence has been the Snow and Charming curse and that will be done in one episode and be forgotten. They have not used the two Reginas being separated to show us anything new about Regina as a character and where she is at characterwise. That is true of all the characters. These things happen to them and then the plot moves on and it is forgotten.