Well, the village was falling appart. The pastries were awful, the earth was dry-ugly, and a bigger piece of fridge logic could come with the fact that since no one would be a good cropper, the plants would have died eventually, no good builders make at best boring and downright simplistic houses worst case scenario the houses would have fallen appart, not to mention no good doctors no nurses to heal up ponies when they need it.
There’s also the magical use of brainwashing which requires someone with a skilled mind, a great discipline and some ammounts of genuine willpower…something Starlight utterly sucks at it, even the willpower thing which might be somewhat more easier to swallow, in Starlight’s case it usually follows raw emotions rather than calculated risks so it would get out of control sooner or later. The mundane brainwashing with isolation rooms make a better effort to control people because you don’t need a direct control over them.
But with the aforement circumstances, “good at managing a town” it’s actually a pretty generous way to describe her leadership there. Mediocre ponies make off for mediocre products and mediocre services; taking a princess as a hostage would have incurred in the wrath of Celestia; her emotional control depended entirely on being in her confort zone as otherwise she breaks down easily; and the CM spell only works with ponies so as a result any berserking dragon or powerful villain like Chrysalis or Tirek would have wrecked the whole place down.
Simply put, Starlight was never really a great brainiac at all, the downfall of his town was actually more of a matter of “when” and “how” rather than an “if”, and her brute force approach to brainwash the mane 6 except Twilight was simply Starlight showcasing again her utter lack self-control and genuine tact. Is Starlight inherently dumb? No, but raw intelligence on itself means nothing without wisdom or an ability to genuinely understand people or environment as well as her tendency to lack foresight for anything she does, in truth, Starlight making boneheaded moves was actually always a consistent trait with her rather than a sudden change the writters did.

What she did in the village was subtle brainwashing, not magically assisted brainwashing.

@ice1517  
I’m still alive: just busy.

@Crystal Neighybánya  
Who are you and what have you done with the real Crystal?

@P3FOYFN  
We are the harbinger of your friendship!

@Crystal Neighybánya
 
Oh wow, that actually is quite a surprise.

Time?
 
Time.

@Jarkes  
Believe it or not, I throughly enjoyed last week’s episode.

@Pagan
 
I think her reduced manipulative tendencies have come from how she’s no longer in a position of authority, percieved or otherwise, of any kind. She no longer thinks she has the answers for everything, so she’s more submissive and a bit more timid, but on occasions when she does think she knows, she still shows intellect and powers of observation. Like, she saw right through Twilight’s bollocks in No Second Prances, and her indictment of Hearthswarming is the same breed of cynical thinking that led to her making a town without marks in the first place.
 
But on the whole her belief in herself is shaken, save for magic, which she KNOWS she’s good at for an absolute fact.

@gingerninja666  
Now if we could just get more instances like that.

@Pagan
 
She still has a bit of charisma. I mean, she manipulated Spike into talking about his past to distract from meeting Sunburst.

Because in the village, you weren’t…
 

@whitestar60
 
I was talking to Crystal, not you.

@Jarkes  

@Goobington  

 
Like I said she’s all magic now, How am I putting a disproportionate amount of importance on it when it was a part of her character and now she never uses it now? She hardly even talks the other characters carry her in that regard other than her reaction to starburst she just uses magic as her default character.

A difference between manipulation/suggestion and indirect control I reckon.

…So I’m guessing this episode made you hate Starlight again?

@Pagan  
“I’m not saying she never used magic and I’m saying there was more to her than that.”
 
And you’re placing a disproportionate amount of importance on that aspect of her.
 
“[…]it would still be nice to see her use some of her other skills from time to time”  
“The old Starlight would have attempted something other than magic to get what she wants 24/7[…]”
 
I’ll repeat what I appended in my last post, since it probably didn’t show up in the notifications. The charisma is less actual charisma, and more manipulation. It relies heavily on her targets being vulnerable to suggestion, and her having the sense of community and belonging afforded by her village to use as bait.
 
Despite no longer having the village, she still manipulates Twilight into activating the time travel scroll, so you can’t say that she relies entirely on magic.
 
After being reformed, she’s going to avoid being manipulative while she learns positive social skills. Magic is repeatedly shown to be her strategy to fall back on, so when she’s avoiding being manipulative, of course she’s going to default to magic. They didn’t change her skills, her character just evolved.

@Goobington  
I’m not saying she never used magic and I’m saying there was more to her than that. Yeah she was nervous we get it but it would still be nice to see her use some of her other skills from time to time. You are completely missing the point of what I am trying to say you’re using isolated incidents to otherwise prove me wrong while ignoring the actual point I am making. The old Starlight would have attempted something other than magic to get what she wants 24/7 but the new one all she does is use magic.

@Pagan  
“Except that’s all we’ve seen her do she only used her charisma and words during the premiere after that it’s only been magic.”
 

 

 
“And yes charisma was definitely applicable it’s always applicable if she had just talked to them I mean that was practically the lesson she was supposed to learn.”
 
Starlight Glimmer: I can cast complex spells, but baking a cake with Pinkie Pie freaks me out! And yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. That’s why I didn’t say anything. I thought if I just kept wowing you with my magical abilities, you might just… not… notice?  
Twilight Sparkle: Baking a cake freaks you out?  
Starlight Glimmer: Yes! Baking a cake, sewing – all of it! What if I was bad at it? I didn’t want to be a disappointment to anypony, and I ended up being a disappointment to everypony.  
Twilight Sparkle: Starlight, do you think anypony cares if you can bake a cake?  
Starlight Glimmer: But the lesson—  
Twilight Sparkle: Was to get to know Pinkie Pie better by doing something she loves. It was a friendship lesson, not a baking lesson.  
Starlight Glimmer: Oh. You know, I think I might have missed the point here.
 
You’re right, it was applicable, but not from the angle Starlight viewed the problem. You can’t just talk your way out of a fear of failure.
 
Edit: Also, the reason why we admittedly see less of her charisma, is because its usage largely hinges on her targets being vulnerable, and her having the sense of community and belonging afforded by her village in order to entice them.

@Goobington  
Except that’s all we’ve seen her do she only used her charisma and words during the premiere after that it’s only been magic.
 
And yes charisma was definitely applicable it’s always applicable if she had just talked to them I mean that was practically the lesson she was supposed to learn.

@Pagan  
In the past, she also used magic, so she uses both. Charisma isn’t applicable to the problem at hand, so she uses magic.

You didn’t care about the town.

@Goobington  
You completely missed the point of my comment, in the past she used her charisma to sway the villagers into staying in the present she just uses magic, do you get it now?

@Background Pony #50C6  

 
I do love how the producers of this show decided to make this character, a Kidnapping cult leader who’s go-to solution to dealing with others is apparently “Remove/break their wills” Twilight’s Friendship student instead of Moondancer or Sunset.
 
I was over my Glimmer hate before, but this episode just reignited it. #GarbageGlimmer