No, you're not melting eyes here. Just expressing what us diehard fans have been typing here for years. 
I still don't understand the decision of getting rid of Dean. Its like someone in corporate wanted to shake things up, and force a mainstream character to get cut out. Maybe they had a germ of an idea, but it all went to the wayside, or just went to shit.
As is, it just went to shit. Knowing Ryan Cawdor, he is the type of character who would NEVER give up searching for his son. Unless it was written well enough by any given author that there was a GOOD and SOLID reason that Ryan would not go looking for his one and only son, then it just comes across as a 'meh,' who cares? 
Deathlands now has a solid cadre of writers working for it now. Much better than Outlanders. But it seems they either have their hands tied about certain things, ie getting Dean situated correctly within this series, one way or the other, and having the companions get new weaponry and clothing. 
Having multiple writers hinders this, since they seemingly are not collaborating together. But, on the other hand, I feel despite its issues, DL still has solid writers who are writing all alone for a series who's main office personnel who can try to make a solid difference, just let the books get on the bookshelves, just treating it like it is: one out of a million titles they publish. 