I agree with you about the show kind of changing direction mid S2 -- in part, I suspect that being under the (potential) axe of cancellation made them decide to push the ending of the YED to the end of S2, rather than S3, and that pushed the changes re: Ava, and has left them flailing around a bit, this year.

...whether they truly did equate Dean with the folks who wrote a treatise on why it was okay to kill old widows and seize their land.

You know, obviously I live a very sheltered life, because it didn't occur to me that they would seriously be "ra-ra! go witch-burners!" But you have a point.