Is the end to the Windom Earle storyline supposed to be unsatisfying?

After 20 episodes of build-up, the stage is set for Cooper and Earle to face each other in the Black Lodge.

And then Bob just kills him before he and Cooper can have any sort of meaningful interaction.

And yeah, I know that this show isn't one to pander to the audience (at least most of the time), but come on. They give us all this backstory, this rivalry, and it all amounts to jack squat?

Literally just one meaningful conversation between the two before Earle is killed off, that's all I wanted. You can have him die after that in exactly the same way. I know that Earle is a pretty controversial character (he's certainly not my favourite), but the way he's just discarded after all the set up annoys me.

I don't know, maybe I'm just missing some deeper meaning.