"Kill your darlings" only applies if you're holding onto something that actually hurts your story. But jerks sometimes use "kill your darlings" as a weapon to try to break you. Don't wantonly kill what you love the most about your story. That's why you're writing it. Make it work.
lately i’ve been seeing a ton of people *aggressively* failing to understand that “kill your darlings” is specifically about like.. that scene you really like that doesn’t actually add anything, ruins the flow, etc..
and sometimes you can’t keep *every* joke, even if they’re all funny!
When I wrote my thesis, I had a document called Graveyard of Murdered Darlings where I put all the genius parts that just didn't fit. It felt good to keep them and eventually forget them. RIP
I say toss em out for folks to enjoy. A fun vignette is like a bowl of nachos. Not much nourishment, but it makes some really old parts of your brain light up.