Regarding the plot lines becoming all twisted... that's what Lost calls 'progress'. I mean, seriously, if you think the plots got more confusing between season 1 and season 3, look at the first third of season 1 and the end of season 1... just as much additional convulsion or whatever there, too! The whole thing about Lost is that it leaves you with only more questions, very rarely giving answers. If the plot lines weren't getting more mixed up and crazy, I don't think that the show would be Lost. I guess it's more 'Lost' because it leaves the viewers feeling that way rather than because they're actually lost. I don't think they're lost so much as they don't know where they are... if that makes sense. It does if you don't think about it!

I like this season. They couldn't leave them sitting on the beachline for longer than one season, after all, so they're doing a good job of restricting the developments.

I think that by the time this entire season is over, only a week or so would have passed in the real time world of Lost. So really, despite them 'ignoring' characters, we probably aren't missing too much anyway. I mean, what are they doing on the beach anyway? It's not like there's a lot of things happening there. I, for one, would much rather learn more about the imprisoned people and the Others than I would want to learn about what trivial things people are doing on the beach, like watching a baby or hunting for boar. It would get tedious, boring and repetitive.

To summarise, they're doing the best they can.