We're very much agreed on the side trips. I was interested to find, upon looking at Wikipedia, that Gaiman and Finnemore did not write them, which may help to explain why the just don't work as well for me.

I'm really wondering if that is significant for plot reasons as well.
That is a fascinating thought. Speaking completely from my own self-interest, while I don't want to wait four years, I wouldn't mind a year or so just so I stand a chance of actually completing a post-S2 fic before the real thing comes along to joss it.