I for one loved that first bullet point of yours. An actor needs to be written out of a show, and instead of killing him off or having him retire they do something interesting with him. They left the door open to him coming back (in case Eric's mental health ever allowed for it), but it was out of their hands.

It's fun going back to the show, because it's so god awful compared to the kinds of content we get today. Today, a new Bones show would be six $40m/each episodes that glorified serial killers rather than forensic minds.