@HammerU89 not pointless, just poorly placed and poorly paced. It's an arc with a "threat" that has never once been relevant except as a side note to start off the series, with a theme that's identical to the last arc (someone going away potentially forever), that interrupted another, highly built up and anticipated arc (festival confession) without any conclusion, and that's now seemingly dragging in a "love interest" that previously wasn't even in the race, by what seemed like her own decision.
Just a whole lot of poor writing. We could've easily gone through with the confession arc, watch the rejection we all know is coming anyway, and then go into this one with less of an identical theme and more of a "mom is calling Shiki back, also trying to marry him off" hook that leads into him discovering his feelings and sense of independence. Instead we get this shit.