Malcolm Merlyn is one of the more annoying ones that follow this path. Screws them continuously but because he is Thea's biological father they just let him do it, defeat his evil plan then forget about it the next day even though he was quite willing to let his daughter die to keep his power atop of the League of Assassins.
Something sprung my mind anyway regarding Laurel, either the actress want's out or they faked her death. Seemingly killing a character off whilst the actress was still willing to make future shows isn't unheard of but they currently have a show that takes in side characters, Legends of Tomorrow of course, a show that desperately needs new additions and to lose some of the ones they have.
Either way, I've made it clear in other threads that despite the Dark Knight trilogy, I despise the DC movies because they always get it so wrong. I love everything Marvel but find their TV stuff a bit bland whilst I've enjoyed every bit of DCs TV shows I've seen thus far. They can not let this go to waste and keep biting off more than they can chew. Arrow deserves the same production quality as the Flash. We've seen the highs of Arrow and they're just as good as The Flash. I really don't see a reason for them to be putting Arrow on the back burner like they are. The budget for LoT is astonishing and will likely never reach the height of these other shows and for that Arrow is the main casualty thus far. I like LoT, it's not great but it's a fun watch at times but honestly, I'd cut it if it meant having the same production quality for Arrow as the first three seasons. Season 3 with the Ras storyline was excellent and finished even better, appearances by John Constantine and so on, Constantine is definitely someone that should be involved this season given the story arc but again, production and whatnot.
Lastly for the 'lulz' Last night's episode where Barry was beside him... or infact green screened in, that's how absurd it's got, usually they're dead on with CGI and green screens and whatnot and most of the time I can't tell but Barry Allen zooming off last night was absolute laziness, he almost moonwalked away it was so bad. You'd think they'd sync the timeline up too. That Barry is from the past so we're now ahead of Arrow in The Flash, despite the Flash having well over a month of breaks in episodes.
Anyway: This obviously doesn't speak for every fan, but I think the titles of these reddit threads about sums up what fans are thinking now
https://www.reddit.com/r/arrow
You'll also find other theories like your own in there about Laurel.