I think it's sort of funny that the writers have an idea of how fans relate to the show, the characters, certain canon events, and canon customs and habits they helped to create. And then how they can be so blind or indifferent to totemic things like the impala or John's journal, or Dean's ring, the Samulet, Sam's jelly bracelet, Dean's skull bead bracelet.
They apparently have little to no idea of how details amplify and illuminate the characters they write, do they? Jensen was so dismissive of the ring in LA--"It was beat up, and I cut my hand on it a couple of times. It was just time for it to go."
Well okay, I can certainly appreciate the practical reasons, but come on. The guy's been wearing that ring since we've known him. Give us a single line, at least to explain why he's stopped wearing it. The bead bracelet replaced the elephant hair ones they cut off Dean in IMToD at the hospital. Through ectoplasm and being thrown into walls, smoked and tossed around by demons and even freakin hell Dean wore that bracelet and ring. And now they just...disappear? Without a line or a word of explanation? Let alone the amulet which fans asked and wondered about for two and a half seasons, until they built an episode around it and the relationship it symbolized? The one thing Sam couldn't bear to bury with Dean, and wore on his own person until he could return it? The god-finder that Dean surrendered only reluctantly to a heavenly messenger? Even if it was burnt out as a tool, even if the devotion it symbolized had been tattered and tarnished for Dean, obviously they had not for Sam. And it would have made all the sense in the world for Sam to retrieve it, to keep it against the possibility of returning it to Dean sometime when it would mean something again.
I know there have been Big Doings at the ranch. But Winchesters don't have a lot of possessions. Those they keep have multiple utility and deep meaning. Casting them aside merits--requires--a word of explanation. I don't understand how the writers don't get that.