Anyone else noticed that Riley and Buffy's dad got treated terribly by the Monks by creating Dawn?

[Joshua]

For example prior to season 5 Buffy's dad was a presence in her and Joyce's life post-divorce always took Buffy for the summers and weekends and as far as we know he only missed Buffy's birthday once due to another engagement (Helpless) and with Riley all of his insecurities come from Dawn opening her mouth each time Buffy gossips about him to Dawn and Willow behind his back instead of telling him. With Dawn's existence, Hank is turned into a complete dead beat not even showing up to Joyce's funeral.

 

[famicommander]

When we first see Hank, he and Joyce are recently divorced. I don't think it's uncommon for a divorced dad to be present quite a bit right after the separation but then slowly fade out of his child's life. Unfortunately that seems to happen quite often. Buffy even expresses worry about whether or not he'll show up prior to his letting her down and prior to the existence of either the Riley or Dawn characters.

 

[Plasma]

With Dawn's existence, Hank is turned into a complete dead beat not even showing up to Joyce's funeral.

Hank was a dead beat before that. In Helpless he ditched Buffy and their big birthday event that she got all excited about due to some dumb and mundane reason. Though it seems that he cancelled just this one time in the context of the episode, the broader implication that he doesn’t make time for Buffy outside of this single time (and thus kind of dumped on her when he cancelled even that single time) makes him seem like a jerk. His reaction to Joyce’s funeral is not a surprise in that regard.

As far as Riley, Dawn was nothing but the messenger, and all she really did was reaffirm his own insecurities. Everything that Riley heard from Dawn was something that he had believed about himself already. Her absent minded spilling of the beans just basically confirmed what he already knew he felt. He still would’ve gone over the edge without Dawn.

 

[Stake fodder]

Yes, Hank's absence in S6 seemed like one of the clunkiest plot points to me. Of course, any financial support from him would mess up the story arc they wanted that season, to say nothing of him showing up for Dawn after Joyce's death. It would have been so much better if they had killed off Hank than trying to pass off this neglect as believable, even with what he had (not) done previously in the series. I guess it's just an example of how the monks did not tie up all the loose ends.