I think most of us here cant come to terms with the fact that he left his family. We're waiting for a very reasonable explanation that could have caused him to leave and never come back.
*never come back until now
Valid opinion, I just personally think everyone jumped to conclusions super fast before we even got to know the reason of why he left to begin with. Some had even made up their mind already that he was going to try to separate ML and MC without proof. This happened with not just the dad but with every new character. The elderly man who gave his daughter up for adoption wasn't inherently evil for his actions, he had been desperate and reckless but not some cartoon villain. The girl with the emotional issues was immediately villainized too because she said something reckless, but it wasn't that she was this maniacal young adult. She was just lost and hurt, and she lashed out at the wrong people even if she is still stubborn about things. When the dad was introduced I saw ppl wishing he would die and he hadn't even spoken yet! As the story tells us, things aren't black and white, and while we can hurt people, it doesn't make us evil and we can always try to start over if we are given the chance to make changes or to ask for forgiveness. And the more we see of the father, the more open-minded I became because he doesn't appear to be some evil man with a secret agenda that will destroy the village. Maybe he didn't have an entirely valid reason to leave, but we didn't have a single clue as to why before this chapter and my stance was to see what he had to say first. Villainizing him only makes it easier to create a barrier and set up too high expectations on why he left. It entirely possibly he didn't even know he had a son as well. But I do agree on waiting to hear the dad out first.
I keep saying that the dad is not some evil guy. He seems too honest to be hiding some evil intentions.