In this case, it might be because they are good buddies with Josh Gad in real life. The three of them were also working together on that Muppet show reboot that didn't get picked up by Disney.
Yeah, I always thought there must be some kind of missing piece of the story that lead to Cora and Henry being banished from court to the country and the family being stripped of their titles between Regina being born and the Stable Boy flashbacks.
I think starting with killing Baelfire/Neal, Robert Carlyle was unhappy with the writing on a lot of things in general, like here and here for example.