I'm still firmly in the "if Daryl dies, we riot" camp. In all seriousness, I think the producers are writing him more out of the central action in order to kill him off. They do that. The producers are there to f*** with your mind. Well, to he** with that. He's better equipped than any of them, with the possible exception of Carol, to survive. That hasn't changed at any point in the series. So, in all seriousness, Darlyl goes, I'm done with the series.
Now, if they do this whole disappearing act, to have him show up in FTWD, that would be a different story. But I think if they killed him off, I wouldn't even finish the episode in which it happened. But that's just me, and my protest against the producers' mind f***.