I felt like you summed that up really well--Maya's stroyline felt like somewhat of a distraction from the sadder part of this episode, and I also really liked their conversation at the end.
I'm a newer Pen15 fan, but I recently just binged S1, and it was so much fun! It definitely keeps getting better.
I used to wonder why they went with middle school instead of high school or something, and thought the only thing more awkward than high school might be the horrid age of 13, which probably makes for funnier moments--it hasn't really been done as much I think lol