I dislike the Daryl + Carol episodes, too. I can't stand their "deep" conversations.
I liked father Gabriel. The way he abandoned his parish causing them to die when he panicked. A tragic character. His character development is more credible than Carol's. It took him years to get over what happened in the past and build more physical and moral courage.
The show has some clear feministic undertones. Real life does not work that way. Take the military, for instance, they've found that a much smaller percentage of female recruits are suitable for combat roles than of male recruits. I think the ratio is something like 1/25. On TWD, we have ten-year-old Judith kick some serious ass.
I agree I'd like to see moer of Negan, Lidia, Magna and Eugene as they investigate what's going on with the new group they've encountered.
I think I'll just gradually keep missing more and more episodes until I find that I'm no longer able to follow the plot.