Fun solve, thank you! (I may regret saying this, but I think the meta prompt may have been a bit too helpful… I had an inkling this was the meta answer before I even opened the puzzle.)
Never saw 23A so I assumed that somehow the star on that clue was accidentally forgotten. I tried making it CaNdy Shack and wondered why it was so different from the other themers.
thank you for the puzzle! I guessed the meta answer right off the bat but still spent a long time puzzling out what was going on in the SE. very satisfying when I got there ^^