Agreed.
Kyle was built on the idea of being the rookie who was tossed into the hero game unexpectedly and with no training... and it kind of worked. However that's a concept with a shelf life and once he WASN"T a rookie... then they lost focus with him. They kept upping the games by throwing MORE power at him than he could handle... ala Ion. and he was floundering pretty hard. He worked for a while... but it certainly wasn't Hal that made him get replaced... he was tailspinning anyway.
Post hal hasn't done him any favors either. They're still struggling to figure out what to do with him.