I think you're right that Sam really moved beyond the role of protected little brother in S2, but it was only on one level. Over and over again, the plot cycled back to something being wrong with Sam (again) and Dean needing to step up and figure it out and save it. On a meta level, it puts Sam right back into the "protected little brother" role.
Agreed to no end about the ball on Dean's growth being dropped. I think they were trying for something in S6 with darker!Dean and, at times, they actually succeeded. S6 was the only time since S4 that we had any exploration of Dean's time in Hell and I really enjoyed that. We had far more references to Dean torturing but there were also hints at him as a victim as well. The problem was that by the end of the season, it went from a fairly balanced look to Dean behaving in a way that seemed almost unbelievable and was so grossly unsympathetic that it drove away his fans. Then S7 came along and even that much was dropped. If anything, Dean regressed and became almost unrecognizable, right before turning completely stagnant.
Re: CC Press video interviews--SPOILERS
I think you're right that Sam really moved beyond the role of protected little brother in S2, but it was only on one level. Over and over again, the plot cycled back to something being wrong with Sam (again) and Dean needing to step up and figure it out and save it. On a meta level, it puts Sam right back into the "protected little brother" role.
Agreed to no end about the ball on Dean's growth being dropped. I think they were trying for something in S6 with darker!Dean and, at times, they actually succeeded. S6 was the only time since S4 that we had any exploration of Dean's time in Hell and I really enjoyed that. We had far more references to Dean torturing but there were also hints at him as a victim as well. The problem was that by the end of the season, it went from a fairly balanced look to Dean behaving in a way that seemed almost unbelievable and was so grossly unsympathetic that it drove away his fans. Then S7 came along and even that much was dropped. If anything, Dean regressed and became almost unrecognizable, right before turning completely stagnant.