New families mean new blood. If you only have the same families, you will run out of love matches over 60 years. Everyone can’t be a Horton or even a Brady as people start intermarrying. Establishing new families means the new characters have context, and it enriches the show. You need a new bloodline every decade or so. The Hernandez clan arrived about 15 years ago. It stinks that it will be down to just Rafe again.
I’ll miss Gabi. Camila Banus a tremendous actress who does a lot with terrible material. I think about what an actress like her could do with some of the backstory and scenes Sloan has had. It makes me appreciate the better actors on the show (from her to either actress who played Abigail or, heck, the actress who played Serena for 10 minutes). She’s been mostly wasted the past 5 years. I can’t blame her for wanting to move on and try other things. She has to be tired of playing the same notes over and over grasping for DiMera. When she had good material—drama or comedy—she absolutely lived up to it.
When she leaves, I hope she takes Stefan with her and they go to Australia to be happy with her kid. I can’t sit through another death that we all know won’t stick, her going to prison again, or some convenient breakup that splits them up after they just got back together. But I’m sure Brandon Barash (Stefan) is still on contract.