Yeah, I think I'd have preferred for the Merit Brush arc to be a few episodes shorter (and then dedicate more time for the endgame arc).

I would have more sympathy for Lin Jing being lonely if he noticed and respected Sha Ya's nonverbal signals that she's not interested in what he's trying to sell. Instead he doubles down on peak techbro pushiness (although it's at its worst with the ring he gives her later, when she returns to Dixing).
As someone who normally has zero patience for this sort of stuff, I was actually surprisingly okay with this ship once everything was done! The start is urgh, granted, but Lin Jing being okay with Sha Ya straight-up trying to murder him (and being a total fanboy over her music) did a lot to win me over.

I think either the Hallows descriptions have been mythologized over the 10k years, or Zhao Yunlan engaged in some profound trolling in the past. Once I'm a bit more awake I'll try to figure out whether each description matches a Hallow.

Fourth Uncle knows what Zhu Hong needs. She's not going to be doing the housework.
LOL, yes.

Obviously Ye Zun stole the cane from gege's boyfriend because he was jealous of gege's boyfriend coming first in gege's heart! Perfectly logical.