I loved the spinning and the weaving scene, too, but I missed part of it due to a last-minute-loo-break. With the tapestry finished maybe it was time for Jacob's thread to be cut?

Apart from that, I haven't got much to add, you've already said it so well.

As to Juliet not receiving a visit from Jacob: I've read somewhere the interpretation that she is the variable, the human element. (If she hadn't fallen, she couldn't have triggered the bomb manually.)
Anyway, she wasn't in the initial plane crash and thus doesn't belong to that particular part of the game. I didn't like her flashback either, as it foreshadowed her decision about Sawyer, but it served to remind us that she has got a sister...

I think the loophole is at least partly connected to the question of who the actual leader is. It used to be Ben and with Locke dead, it should be Ben again, but Not-Locke is masquerading as the leader and thus taken to the statue by Richard. But the question remains how did Not-Locke manage to walk around, looking and talking like Locke, when Locke is dead...