I'm confused, what of those examples really have much anything to do with GL or THE BLACKEST NIGHT other than the fact that Johns is writing them?
They were things that I didn't care for, they were in this comic, therefore they were things I didn't like in this comic. The main story of Blackest Night might very well be brilliant, but if it's filled with things like Johns referencing "Hippolyta was Wonder Woman", "Maxwell Lord was always evil" "Barry was created by tragedy" "Canary wasn't a JLA founder" and "Barbara Gordon was the only Batgirl that mattered" then I don't care. It only takes a few bad ingredients to spoil a stew.
And do we know that Johns was responsible for kicking Dinah out? Because that really sounds like an editorially-mandated move, a trademark DiDioism. But it could have been Johns, I suppose.
I'd be willing to bet my savings on it. "Editorial" seems unlikely to give a fig.