Because Rick and pretty much everyone else is now fully in the grey between the obnoxiously altruistic Rick of seasons past and the blatant selfish practicality of Shane. That conflict is pretty much over - Rick even forgives Carol, ffs. He's still a "good" guy, just much more of a realist. He's badass Rick all the time now, instead of conflicted Rick that guns down mofos but feels a little bad about it afterwards.
I guess all the fucked up experiences of seasons past has turned the characters into people we can actually stand instead of people we want to fucking choke to death like fucking Dale. The writers can't have them doing stupid shit any more because the characters have just experienced too much for it to be plausible. Like how they turned Rick into a goddamn farmer because hey, we're safe now!
So they have to write in new dumbfucks like the priest, heh.