I don't know if you actually want this over-earnest answer but you did at least ask for AN answer, so.
I thought the ToT author's note was weird when I first read it and then I was all "but why tho" and I think it's this: this is a gift fic, it's supposedly written foremost for the recipient, but the first thing the recipient sees is something that isn't written for them at all. They know that they asked for that Hungarian Shakespeare production. They know this is a gift in an exchange. So it has the feeling to me of someone calling someone over to give them a gift and then, while still holding it, turning around and saying "Yo, so, this is what's going on here" while the person expecting the gift stands there in polite bafflement, waiting for the gift but not actually involved in what's going on. THEN they get the gift. So it's like saying "I wrote this for a person but what I'm really thinking about is my subscribers and how I need to explain to them why I'm writing this fic."
Of course, those subscribers are the person's community, and it's not the weirdest thing ever to have them in mind. Maybe it would be better to add that note *after* reveals? Or would that be weirder to the recipient to come back and find it added? I do not know. So I'm not sure I care that much.
Re: Trick or Treat
I don't know if you actually want this over-earnest answer but you did at least ask for AN answer, so.
I thought the ToT author's note was weird when I first read it and then I was all "but why tho" and I think it's this: this is a gift fic, it's supposedly written foremost for the recipient, but the first thing the recipient sees is something that isn't written for them at all. They know that they asked for that Hungarian Shakespeare production. They know this is a gift in an exchange. So it has the feeling to me of someone calling someone over to give them a gift and then, while still holding it, turning around and saying "Yo, so, this is what's going on here" while the person expecting the gift stands there in polite bafflement, waiting for the gift but not actually involved in what's going on. THEN they get the gift. So it's like saying "I wrote this for a person but what I'm really thinking about is my subscribers and how I need to explain to them why I'm writing this fic."
Of course, those subscribers are the person's community, and it's not the weirdest thing ever to have them in mind. Maybe it would be better to add that note *after* reveals? Or would that be weirder to the recipient to come back and find it added? I do not know. So I'm not sure I care that much.