Thanks to the time jump, li’l orphaned Henry got to vault through puberty to take on Carl’s more mature arcs, such as being largely responsible for getting a ton of protagonists murdered by Alpha and the Whisperers.
Yeah, Henry screwed everyone, and I’ve never missed Carl more.
When The Walking Dead killed off Chandler Riggs’ Carl Grimes, it was clear another younger character was needed to take on Carl’s various comic book plotlines that the TV series hadn’t broached yet.