I've always found weird that pop can get a positive GOE. A pop is a mistake, but a pop with +GOE is like a rewarded mistake.Pops versus falls is an interesting debate, because in a sense it's a microcosm of the athletics vs. aesthetics angle of figure skating. Rotating in full is more athletically difficult, while popping is almost always less disruptive to the performance, and in particular for casual viewers who may not even sense that something went wrong.
I don't know. Pops less punished than falls, why not, as they are less disruptive. But fallen triple still 3 rotations while a popped triple into double is two rotations (who intended to be three, so a mistake). Difficult.