I'll disagree in turn. Most of those plot points aren't particularly important. As
Sheet420 said, they were added to justify the length of the Interlude. We didn't see Zoey gradually lose enthusiasm for surfing; she tried it once, sucked at it, and then we barely see her on a surfboard again. Zoey's artistic skills would have been better established via the MC's memories (in which case seeing them in action in the Interlude would at least have been a nice treat). Her strictly platonic friendship with Bret goes nowhere and Emma's jealousy comes straight out of left field. Even the big decision about how Zoey handles things with Emma feels like a questionable design choice: it's not like anyone would bat and eyelash if Zoey had a preset personality like all the other LIs.
The only thing the Interlude really *needed* to do was sell us on why Zoey left the MC and why she was returning - and IMHO it did a lousy job at those, too. She left because she was obsessed with a very shallow dream and she came back because she'd run out of money.
I care less about Zoey now than I did before I met her.
Going to have to disagree with this as well. DPC's cliffhangers are uneven at best. Episode 3 was great, but 4 felt underwhelming after the rushed resolution to the Maya/Josy crisis; was there any doubt we'd become a DIK? Episode 5 was effective as a kind of 'hitting rock bottom' moment, but I wouldn't call it a cliffhanger. Episode 6 definitely got our attention, but it was a bit frustrating seeing Maya's arc reset like that - especially if you weren't on her path. Episode 8 hit the reset button even harder, plus it ducked out of the consequences of the Crossroads AND had that moronic one-size-fits-all fuckstorm at the end. Really Episode 7 was the only ending I actually liked in Season 2, and the 'cliffhanger' was the weakest part (to the point Chad/Troy is barely even mentioned in Episode 8).
Frankly, the reason I'm so annoyed at the long production time for Episode 9 is because DPC botched the ending to Season 2 so badly. I
want to be enthusiastic for the new season, but I have no idea what he's planning to do with it and I don't like the direction Episode 8 left us in because DPC was too obsessed with his dumb twists to sell me on what was supposedly a pivotal decision in the MC's life.