I think you can have the whole community interact without losing an air of mystery. Marland did at ATWT. I also think that McTavish mostly just ramped up the umbrella story when she was back at AMC in 2003 because the show seemed so empty and plastic under Rayfield and the other person (to me anyway). I don't remember her doing this as much when she was around in 1998/99.

I don't like pointless character interactions but sometimes when people are too isolated it starts to become suffocating. I felt that way with Nikki for most of the mid-90s on Y&R.

On AMC in the early 80s, they essentially had three contingents of characters-stories that rarely interacted. You had Erica in NYC interacting with the Kingsleys and Bogards, with her only PV connections being Mona and Mark. Then you had the Martin-Gardner-Hubbard-Grant contingent in PV that hardly ever interacted with the Cortlandt-Tyler-Wallingford-Sago faction on the other side of town. At least that's how I remember it. I like that soap canvass model, and back then, AMC played all the necessary story beats without sacrificing logical character interaction. I am not a huge fan of umbrella stories that devour the entire cast. I've always found them very manipulative. Inevitably, they become totally plot-driven, as the writers wind up shoehorning characters into the storyline in ways that make little sense for that particular character, just to satisfy or advance a particular plot point.

AMC was perfect in the early 80s. And the way they created this longterm other locale with their version of NYC is something I have yet to see done on another show. NYC was just as legitimate a location for the show as PV was. The various groupings occasionally intersected though. Olga Swenson, doyenne of the NY modeling scene hired Jenny, while her brother Lars wooed Daisy.