That was a lovely read. Very insightful and well thought out. You underestimate yourself. I especially loved all the part on Sam and Dean. I too never saw Sam's revelations as a guilt trip. Sam truly believes that he is such a let down and failure that Dean has to turn to supernatural beings to receive the brother-ship, kinship, partnership and support that Sam has failed to provide. And the emphasis on "Vampire" was not missed. Benny is the most recent and the one that seemed to hurt the most because of the mere fact that Dean trusting a vampire to the degree of a brother is something that even Dean would have laughed at before he went to Purgatory. To see Dean who was going to kill a vampire who had never killed a human before in season 2 to being best friends with one must have been a shock to Sam and really drove his failure as a brother home to him. I loved it all.

I don't think we ever needed Dean to say out loud how much he has always put Sam above every and anyone else in their live. Dean who has a set of rules of how he interacts, sees and handles everyone and then a special book filled with an exclusive set of rules of how he interacts, sees and handles Sam. I mean this is the same guy who has ever thought of and only sold his soul for Sam, who didn't care that the world may end as long as Sam was dead. The Dean who can take any betrayal and loss given time but completely looses it and is incapable of functioning properly when it is Sam who betrays him or is Sam who he looses.
The show has done a good job of illustrating Dean's priorities that we have episodes upon episodes to support every word he uttered. But it was nice to hear him say it out loud to Sam who needed to hear it the most as i'm sure some part of the fandom did too(i don't know why and i would like to know per Dean's words: "what show are they watching?"lol)



Now i just rambled. Anyways, good job! ;)