The series itself is far from perfect. It definitely has its fair share of flaws in pacing, character development, and worldbuilding. For one thing, it's pretty really clear that the series was not supposed to last as long as it did: an audience of young girls were meant to watch Twilight Sparkle and her friends grow up and embrace their virtues as women...and then move on with their lives, hopefully taking inspiration from the lessons they learned along with these characters.
But because the series became more popular with an older audience, something had to change. The production company could wrap up the story-line and cancel the series, or they could continue it but cater the series to an older audience demographic.
And, well, they ended up kinda choosing both...
If you're watching the show for Twilight's character arc (which I think most people are at the start) it is perfectly acceptable to stop watching the series after season 3. Her development is a bit rushed towards the end of S3 (because the build up to the finale is only 14 episodes rather than the regular 20+ in seasons 1 & 2) but thematically it's solid and it works.
But because of how long the series ended up being, it feels like she peaks at the very beginning of her character arc. And rather than having her ascension happen as an accumulation of everything she's learned and experienced so far, it ends up feeling unearned.
You're left wondering: "1) Why did this happen now? 2) Does she's really have the life experience and knowledge to impart all this insight she's giving to other characters when she's only ever really dealt with her own little clique of friends?"
(The answer is: 1) It happened "now" because the writers thought they were going to have to cancel the series and 2) No...no she doesn't...
She hasn't yet learned from her past mistakes and failures...
She hasn't grown a backbone and stood up to authority figures in defense of her values...
She's never dealt with people like the narcissistic personality disorder pony....
The depressed emo pony...
The antisocial personality disorder pony...
And she's never made friends with people who are HARD to be friends with...
Why not have her do all this and THEN make her the "princess of friendship"?
For what it's worth, even though I do see Twilight's premature ascension to royalty as a bad thing that negatively impacts the coherence of the story, I do appreciate that they included these plot points at all. She does get the XP, its just unfortunate that it happens after the story has kind of moved past her as the main focus of the narrative.
End note:
(When I first watched season 5, I thought it would have been kind of cool to introduce "Princess Twilight Sparkle" as a kind of emergency measure against the Tirek invasion. I could just see Celestia going: "Look Twilight, I wasn't gonna tell you for the next couple of years but this is an emergency. I've been grooming you up to take my job, and I need you to step up to the plate right now!" This would have been fantastic because the fact that her status is un-earned is. the. exact. point! She needs to "bring her A game" to prove herself and save everyone...That would have made her boss fight with Tirek even more magnificently epic!)
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