I think the writers set it up that way on purpose to show us the injustice of it, to help us feel what Regina is presumably going to be feeling-how unfair it is. The writers meant to rub salt in our wounds and I'm okay with that because it's a storytelling technique that they chose and I have to respect that, being a writer myself. It wasn't an arbitrary choice and I am glad to see something that feels like a good writing choice for what they want to play out between the characters.
Maybe. And IF this is something they actually follow up on, then sure. On the other hand, as others have pointed out, it’s not the first time they’ve set something up this way. The vault scene was just as inappropriate and by all accounts, that was just thoughtlessness on the writers’ part. And as it stands, we’ve no real indication that this’ll actually play into anything. So I can understand why people, at this point, aren’t willing to trust that it wasn’t an arbitrary choice - we’ve no real proof, and they’ve done it before. And even if it was a storytelling choice, it was a heavy-handed one, and it’s made a lot of people angry, so I’m just not sure I’d call it a good one no matter what the reason for it, you know?