I feel like if it weren't for this being the season finale, they might have postponed the airing of this episode either to the next season or to another episode of the season. And I don't think they'd be willing to air another repeat since they already aired 10 this season. So this is just really bad timing all around.
As for Season 53 as a whole, it is a bit of a mixed bag, but it is better than the last couple of seasons, as this season focused a bit less on the whole I Wonder, What If gimmick, leading to more breathing room for stories. Still very mixed as there are some that range from decent to just very superficial. And do not get me started on the Happy Hair Day street story, which surpassed Enthusiastic Penelope Penguin as my least favorite street story.
More characters like Bert and Ernie have still been sidelined, and Telly especially has been as well, as he hasn't had a single new appearance this season. He did however make an appearance in the Mindfulness Special, so that tells me that Telly may not be completely retired, but he's definitely not a priority. Marty stated that Telly stopped appearing due to the research team finding that kids tend to confuse Telly's anxiousness with anger. I feel like if they're going with his more recent appearances, I could kind of see why as, as I could think of at least one example where Telly essentially pesters Abby for making art the "wrong" way.
In fact, now that I think about it, Rudy did sort of the same thing with Charlie when he pointed out the wrong colored grass in her artwork. And Rudy is now seemingly starting to take a nosedive as he went from being pushed to being a major character to also being secondary at best. He hasn't even appeared in the new Season 53 intro, which seems to say a lot as to where their priority is on using Rudy.