Have we? I only remember 4 parties in Seasons 1 & 2, which I listed and happened in Episode 2, Episode 5, Episode 7, and Episode 8. I wouldn't really call that "a party per episode for a while now". But regardless, I said that I don't mind having a party per episode, I just don't want them to be as long as the one this episode and want them to be varied.
Not really sure what you're trying to say here... I didn't say that was new, in fact, I said the opposite. In the past parties and locations are varied and I hope he keeps that up, but if he does that it would mean there are less parties that would make sense to be planned by MC, ergo less use for the party planning minigame.
Again, I mentioned this in my own post, but you can only really do the "MC helps HOTs plan their party" thing like once as a favor for them helping with the Halloween party. Any more and it would feel forced imo, the HOTs are their own entity and I don't think Sage and Quinn would appreciate MC trying to take control of all their parties, especially if he's not even on a Sage path or broccoli playthrough. So now you went from 4, 5, maybe 6 DIK parties, to 3 or 4 DIK parties and 1 HOT party. Not much variety compared to the previous seasons imo.
We shall see, I'm not trying to be too pessimistic, but I think my predictions are pretty realistic judging by how this episode turned out. Either we don't see much use of the party planning minigame in the future, or its gonna be a lot of the same type of party. Maybe he can throw in a DIK party at a different venue to shake things up a bit.