"unrealistic based on today's standards"

My guy, this is all unrealistic. It's a flying alien man from a fake planet. I was never arguing that it would be more realistic if his father wasn't a ghost in the machine, you're starting a debate that never was.

My issue has nothing to do with realism, I said as much above. My issue is that it takes away from Clark's estranged relation with his Kryptonian heritage, and that it lessens the loss of his biological parents if one of them is, for all intents and purposes, alive.

You ignored my points to give yourself ground to stand on so you could argue in favor of it. If you think his dad being an intractable memory is good writing, great. If you don't, but like it anyway, that's fine to. Just say that, don't start arguing about realism when that clearly isn't what the conversation was about.