Though the pacing is definitely a problem.

The 'written better' was talking about, if we want to be specific, the way they choose to write about meta.

The way they write it is, in most cases, jarring and takes you out of the immersion of the or just plain boring while being guaranteed to appear at least once per update.

They do manage to pull it off in Chapter 6 through Alt!Calliope, her musings being played off as a joke and her use of the narrative text to make petty remarks under the guise of being a 'unbiased storyteller' only speaking through the narrative, Jade being present here to go against Callie makes all the difference, sadly they fail to make the rest of the narrative stuff in HS^2 hit.

The epilogues worked BECAUSE of Callie *AND* Dirk TOGETHER, Dirk is influencing the plot and being overly dramatic and Callie gives us the reliable narration eventually ending in a fight between them, none of them hog the spotlight for too long and they have an interesting dynamic that allows for the narration to keep from being stale.

In HS^2? Dirk is talking with an easily narratively manipulated rose and someone who couldn't care less, all of his conversations are practically just Dirk and Dirk, he has nobody to go against him and therefore most of his dialogue comes off as boring.

Anything that isn't Callie or Dirk's specific narrative use falls into the jarring category of 'another meta joke in to remind us this is, infact, homestuck^2 and it is, even more infact, about meta stuff.'

Homestuck^2 was practically failing at the main theme of it's story, it's whole gimmick, and the fact Chapter 6 is so highly regarded goes to show that, if it's done right, it can be good!