I've been giving a few more spins about what could be seen as fanservice and what tells the lore from the fanservice.
I think for example about Discord, the character himself is fanservice because some fans have seen TNG and love how the portrayal of Q is delivered and he brings lore onto the table with his origins of a draconequus that has lived for an entire milennia but could any episode about him be qualified as fanservice (for example Discordant Harmony)? Nonetheless,he served to display Grogar, who counted as fanservice back in the day,so we would be talking about two layers of fanservice in one character (many brains would explode here)
Same applies to hippogriffs or kirins. At first they were seen as mythical creatures that in the books,they displayed something unusual for the ponies (the first weren't seen for a long time and were thought to be nonexistent while the latter were seen as scary because they had a dark side,the Niriks) and after their introduction,that exposed lore becomes a reality,quite practical and the myths translate into the usual characteristics expected from them,becoming mundane instead of legendary after staying for a while with them.
As for season 7,Starswirl represented for the fans and the show the greatest unicorn that would get close to know about the roots of this universe. That was right and Twilight looked up to him before meeting him,so many stories and mysticism behind him. He became real and we saw a legend reborn yet Twilight's illusions were absolutely torn apart and the fanservice. and lore paid off in Shadow Play.
However,does this mean that Starswirl by himself was pure fanservice? Sure but did anyone expect him to act that way or even act like he did in Friendship Academy?
I ask this because what fans have wanted to see was more material or X character getting an episode. Undefined content about them but more about them despite the direction put on practice.
I wanted to make clear about the concept and how the lines of lore actually count as lore and what counts as basic traits for the show in later episodes. The Everfree Forest,so mysterious and made you wonder what secrets were beyond that place,what made it so scary. Uh,there are cockatrices, timberwolves or even the chimera. There are reasons to make it scary...but not in the way that ponies imagined.
It showed lore but over time,it simply turned out to wors as a means to an end because the most interesting stuff arose later and peaked with the Tree of Harmony and the Castle of the Two Sisters and even those suffered the same treatment as the forest. All the mysticism around them and over the course of the seasons became usual places to visit (especially for the students and the mane 6) that the lore behind them just became either mundane or more familiar to the characters,so much that they adapted it as another home.
