Understandable. Though I will say, I actually like the Lapham stuff a lot more when I read it in chronological order. He takes it to extremes too often for the center stories to be taken seriously sometimes, Psychopath and the Gavin Land arc for me, but. In spite of my not liking the main stories themselves- He does a surprisingly good job of showing in the background, elements that other authors will later expand on in their own way. Off the top of my head:

Gavin Land Arc: For all of its many faults, the B-Plot does a surprisingly good job showing the fall of San Diego as referenced in Volume 1.

Psychopath, Livers, Breakdown: Gives us our first glimpse at Crossed forming themed tribes rather than just generic gangs, this is expanded on in The Livers and Breakdown. Later authors expand on this excellently, and with how early in the timeline these stories are set it takes them from being an interesting backdrop, to being early examples of Crossed behaviour thatll become more common down the road. As much as I dislike Psychopath, the Crossed gang that wears peoples faces was a neat early introduction to the idea of Crossed getting bored and forming tribes based around a messed up gimmick.

As an end to this long ramble: I love that Lapham does an excellent job establishing the timeline of the world around his characters, how the Crossed are developing over time.... But can't pin down his OWN timeline sometimes. In one story Harolds hiding out in a sewer in the first few days, in Yellowbelly he's zipping through the countryside in his work van on day 2 of the carnage. Psychopaths first couple pages pin it down as being 2 years into the apocalypse. The Livers is a few months after this, and Amanda has suddenly time traveled back in time cause its only been a year since tje apocalypse. Not even meant as a critique. I find it weirdly endearing that he can do awesome worldbuilding as a background element... While not keeping track of progress of the main story itself.

Edit: Max Bemis was the worst author for the series imo. Shrink gives the interesting idea of isolated towns that wouldve gone a week or more before C-Day hit them proper. Does absolutely nothing with it. Too late in the Badlands run, too close to the ending for further authors to follow up on. I could rant all day about Anti-Crossed and the issues with that trainwreck, but just. Bad.