I'm pretty sure the waffles thing is a reference to a quote from one of the screenwriters on the subject of J/E and W/E in DMC. He was clarifying that the compass points to what you want at that moment and that it doesn't play games or make analogies or symbologies. If it points to a waffle then it doesn't mean you secretly want to be Belgium. It means you want that waffle. The question being, as he put it, if you were really, really, really hungry and had been gearing up for quite some time for the most delicious meal you've ever had in your life and then suddenly you were unable to have said meal and were subsequently presented with a particularly interesting waffle, you might want the waffle. But does that make you a bad person.

So, in short:

Waffle = Jack
Most Delicious Meal etc. = Will
Elizabeth in DMC = Really Hungry

re: the curse

I collected a bunch of data on it here if you're really curious and also confused. Which, yeah, thanks editors.