I think Ishita has been trying to rectify her mistake in bringing Shagun to her house and giving her importance. The race track was so symbolize that. Ishita finally understood that giving Adi false hopes of his parents reunion in the pretence of making him comfortable after such a traumatic event is bad. That's why she refused to let Shagun take her place in the race. She's slowly fighting back but is also very careful in attempting to keep Shagun close because Adi is tied with Shagun. No matter what Ishita says or does, she cannot be super harsh with Shagun because that's gonna affect Adi.
Even if Ishita wants Shagun to be gone from the house, she can't really kick her out because then Adi will go with Shagun. And the last time that happened (Mihir's house) the Bhalla's had a field day and demanded that Ishita apologize for something she did not do.
I'm not disagreeing in that Ishita's actions have been wrong, but merely trying to explain that she has begun taking steps, albeit small, to push Shagun out of her life.
And I completely agree with your post about the Bhalla's and their fickleness. I really hated seeing Ishita apologizing and doing shit for the Bhalla's because they've always been so fickle with her. One day they'll support her, and another day they'll sit back and watch the drama, or another day they'll throw her to the dogs. There is no consistency in their behaviour. And to see Ishita continually "sacrifice" for such people is so annoying to see. Speaking of which, Ishita's sacrificing is annoying in general because so much of the sacrificing can be avoided in the first place.
As for the Romi track, yeah, I'm still pretty upset as well. Freaking Romi had NO consequences for the way he treated Mihika and Sarika. Like W*F. He basically destroyed one girl's reputation and destroyed another girl's life. Romi does not deserve a girl like Sarika. She is WAY too good for him. Like you, I'm also so shocked that Raman and Ishita have not remained in contact with her. (although I do hope I'm proven wrong by this with some scenes of Ishita and Sarika interacting or something -- I realize that it's not always possible to film such scenes before the actual track starts due to the demands of the actors). On another note, I really hope Romi does not fall into Shagun's trap and does something bad to Mr. Iyer.
Ever since the show shifted to the 7 pm slot, there's definitely been a change in the way tracks are conceived and handled. The earlier character driven episodes are completely gone.