I'm not sure how much McTavish liked writing for Erica, but unlike with, say, Brooke, she knew that she had to and that was one thing she shouldn't fight against. At least that's my impression. (Not always--I mean the Kendall introduction storyline was really what put her on the map as an AMC writing, but I stand by my comment.)
Yeah I find all of this so interesting to think about, and I admit my take is largely conjecture. I will say when Nixon initially started being credited as co-HW (With Elizabeth Page initially who someone on here said through something at her--which I guess is when Jean Passanante took over as co-HW lol) I really welcomed stuff like that--just those character scenes like you describe at the Glamorama, etc. Because that had really been missing from the McTavish second run (I think this was when I started to learn high falluting overused terms online like character based writing over plot based.) So, while I do think Nixon wasn't quite up to it, it just felt like such a welcome improvement to me even without a lot of stand out stories (except for the ones related to Bianca's coming out.) I mean, at least for a year and a bit, until it was obvious it was more Passsanante's show and then she was the only credited HW and we all know what happened.
By this point Agnes Nixon was older than Irna Phillips had been when she died, was also five years older than Bill Bell who stepped down from Y&R I believe in 1998? although I believe Agnes was still in better health than he was, and I'm sure she did want to retire at least from being a HW and all the work that took. On the other hand, we know from way too much anecdotal evidence, she still did not want to let go of the show, and wanted to be involved with story meetings, and other decisions (and yet had less ultimate control of the show than Bill Bell since she didn't own it.) From writers I've spoken to at least until 1999 she would still regularly call up in the middle of the night with plot ideas, etc.
I think @Vee and @DRW50 have rather generously put it well, that McTavish did have a strong connection to AMC and Pine Valley. But it was different--just from reading her book, etc, it really does seem like she felt it was a place where she had every right to toy with both the audience and with the characters themselves in a way the other writers you mentioned, didn't.
It's interesting @Khan brings up Victor Miller because we do know that he got along extremely well with McTavish and I forgot that when she had to largely rebuild the AMC writers room in 1998 (because Broderick took Corley, etc, to ATWT) looking at some Fall and Winter 1998 end creits, Miller is listed as head breakdown writer.
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