Blaming Disney Channel for everything wrong with GMW seems too easy.

The question I want to ask is, where does Michael's influence on GMW end and Disney's influence begin?

I see it brought up a lot that Disney handicapped the show creatively, and I don't doubt that Disney had a hand in the quality to some extent. But if you watched the show back then, you probably knew about the GMW writers' Twitter account. It was cringeworthy back then and it's even worse now if the account is still there. It was just Michael Jacobs talking about how amazing the show is and making a bunch of vague statements that didn't mean anything.

Also, as great as BMW was, it wasn't perfect, and a lot of the things that people hated about BMW in its later years ended up going to GMW. Cory hated change, but Riley was on a different level. There was the Sweet 16 episode near the end where they were all talking about going to different colleges and Riley flipped out. It's almost like she was threatening everyone to stay together and not even think about the future. The possibility of Riley and Maya not being friends one day sent them into a tailspin and made them cry. I'm sure the same team behind BMW could have made these characters less emotionally stunted, even if it was on Disney Channel.

To add to that, as someone that grew up on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, it wasn't a death sentence for GMW to be on Disney Channel. ABC was already owned by Disney. A lot of the TGIF shows that aired back then would end up on Disney if they were made now. It's just that back then, those shows were meant for families, and they were popular with kids. As time went on, Nick and Disney cornered the market and those shows no longer needed to be on the big networks. There was a specific audience for them that they couldn't get on ABC.

GMW premiered in 2014. That was the same year Good Luck Charlie and A.N.T. Farm ended, both very entertaining shows. I already said that Good Luck Charlie did everything Girl Meets World was trying to do better, and A.N.T. Farm (the first two seasons, anyway) was a lot better comedically. Nobody on GMW could hold a candle to Cameron or Chyna's dad. Except for Zay, but he was just on the wrong show.

My point is that GMW was what it was mostly because of bad writing. Being on Disney Channel doesn't inherently mean you have to make a bad show. I don't remember shows like That's So Raven or Suite Life having those problems. And moving it to Freeform or ABC wouldn't have helped. Freeform had shows like The Fosters and Pretty Little Liars. No way GMW as it was would be able to fit in. I guess it could have been with the sitcoms, but I don't know what the level of quality was with them. ABC had Modern Family, The Goldbergs, The Middle, and was about to get Blackish in 2014. Would Girl Meets World stand a chance against any of those shows? I doubt it.

To make one last point, the same year GMW ended was the same year Andi Mack premiered, and it not only took more chances, but was more of the kind of show people expected GMW to be. Disney Channel didn't slow it down as far as I know. Teri Minsky had a vision and she saw it through. Michael Jacobs had his and he saw it through.

TL;DR: GMW failed because of GMW. Moving it to another network wouldn't have changed anything because its problems were internal, not external.