They aren't talking about a loss of castmate. They're talking about someone who was allowed to sit around idle for months, and speaking as someone who, reluctantly, did that to another person, it's not okay. There are special cases of dependency where people from certain canons would notice. Acquiring a stricter AC would change that. No one situation is the same, and I can guarantee that both players have successfully handled untimely drops. They weren't talking about that at all. And in a game like Damned, there is a vast difference between "dropped" and "still in play," where visible presence can be acquired. Please keep that in mind.