>the most viewer-hostile schedule imaginable

Honestly, at least Gravity Falls has the excuse of its episodes being made on a really slow schedule. Steven Universe is a series that is designed to have its episodes be put out quickly on a weekly schedule (most notably, by merging the position of episode writer and storyboarder), and it maintained that weekly schedule for some time, but Cartoon Network has convinced itself that the Bomb format is good for ratings. This is what has led us to situations like this, where they clearly have at multiple completed episodes in the pipeline and have had them for months, but won't air them for no reason. And when they do air episodes, they air them multiple-at-a-time, burning through their stock in no time and forcing the show on a further hiatus.

Gravity Falls aired slowly because it had to. Steven Universe airs slowly because fuck you.