I do agree, but am guessing it was more to give Abe some meaty material, and stretch out the time to when they were letting Tyler Pettis (Theo) go. They probably had to wait to end of contracts maybe??? And it did afford JJ a chance to show what he could do. Soaps always take things too long to evolve, but that story was a good one. So was Nicole finally getting her baby ....and again, Ari Zucker (Nicole) gave them a lot of notice she was not renewing her contract.
It is pretty difficult for writers to come up with story, when there is such age discrepancies among the cast members. THAT is a failure on the part of producers. And again, they are hampered by the budget.
Just think....once upon a time we had Belle, Shawn, Philip, Mimi, Chloe, Brady, & about 4 others that made up the teen generation, just above them was Sami, Lucas, Austin, Carrie, Eric, Nicole, .........there was a definite "mid", with Bo, Hope, Steve, Kayla, John, Marlena, Roman, Shane, Kim,, and then the older ones with Alice, Tom, Maggie, Mickey, Victor, Stefano. Now there is half the cast, and so they "make do".
Heck, teens are Claire, Tripp, Ciara and the departing Theo. Just above...Gabi, Chad, Abby, JJ, Lani, Eli.
Well, you all can see how things are whittled down, with there being NO ages. Does Hope acknowledge she has a grown granddaughter? Ha.