>>/10842/
> Honestly kind of like the idea... feels like a way to soft canonize the cartoon gags in a way that fits. If I am making sense.
That's the way I like to think of it. Plus it explains why she can't use them when they'd be really, really useful, like in Discord's maze. Sure, one could argue that they're just artistic representation of her randomness, or that she's simply totally unaware of her powers, but both of those don't really fit with the episode where she has those sixth-senses to me. And the fact that in that episode, unlike Twilight Pinkie doesn't even seem interested in discovering anything about her own mysterious abilities suggests to me that on some level, possibly subconscious, she's partially aware that knowing too much about her powers will stop them working. It could also go some way to explaining the Earth Pony interest in things like tradition and keeping magic away - Unicorn magic works essentially scientifically by comparison, and could interfere with Earth pony powers or else just make Earth ponies think more logically about their superstitions thus killing off some of their abilities, and having traditions, a set of practices you don't question, is a way for generational memory to practice Earth Pony magic where a singular Earth Pony could not, since their magic seems to shy away from being known or actively practiced. In this sense too, I like to think of Applejack and her family as actually being unwitting powerful magic practitioners, but they simply unknowingly channel their powers through their traditions. This could also go some way to explaining elements of the Everfree, being the corrupted side effects of superstitions or of incorrectly-followed traditions. 
I could even go further, saying that since they tap into the land and the universal principle of this plane is harmony and harmony is expressed in living creatures through friendship and we see both tight-knit Earth Pony communities fostering friendships, like Ponyville, and Pinkie Pie's particular obsession with friendship and everything associated with it, that perhaps by being so closely connected to the land, Earth Pony magic is perhaps being able to use, channel or apply some of that magic of harmony that our Mane 6 come through the course of the show to wield more directly. Then that can branch off into me asserting that unicorn magic derives from chaos, and that goes down a whole rabbithole, but I won't go too nuts with speculation and I'll just wait to see if the show bears out my theory or doesn't. Even if it does I regard the more extreme elements of my theories as just being interpretations or alternate universes, I do also like to have a separate conception of the show where it's purely what it appears to be, though that becomes more complicated once fan theories start to get incorporated into the show. 
 >>/10843/
>  I was always split between trying to rate "objective" quality versus personal enjoyment and now I lean much more towards the later myself.
The thing is, in life generally I don't tend to go all that much for objective quality in terms of things I consume. I'm aware of high art, I mentioned prior being a fan of Wagner's Ring Cycle and I grew up on books like Gulliver's Travels and The Betrothed Lovers, but generally the stuff I really, really love is not considered all that great, or at least mixed by others. My favourite director, for instance, is Ralph Bakshi, whose films range from "this is alright I guess" to "this is the worst trash ever made" in public opinion on his work, one of my favourite games is YIIK - I go out and find stuff that I LIKE, at the end of the day, not stuff that's good. Most people are like that if they're honest with themselves, life is short and it's better to actually enjoy yourself than spend all day reading The Iliad and such (not that such is necessarily unenjoyable, but you get what I mean, people don't usually consume something just because it's good)