I still think you might be hard on this season, but on this one I have to agree.

I see no reason to think it's going to just be a lot of pandering. The episode summary doesn't give us a lot to go on, but it sounds like there's definitely the potential for an episode as creative as the previous episodes.

Certainly it won't be completely fanon-driven, since the writers for most franchises (ESPECIALLY those with big corporate rightsholders like LEGO and Hasbro) prohibit themselves from reading fan-fiction related to the franchise, which could be a liability if an idea they explore in an episode should happen to bear resemblance to an idea explored in a fanfic they read. It's not just something a few authors do-- it's common practice in the industry.

And while this doesn't mean the writers will be completely oblivious to the various ways fanon depicts the characters, it does mean that the story they tell will be uniquely their own creation and held to the same standard of quality as the stories they tell with the Mane Six and other central characters.