I guess I'll continue to spoiler stuff just in case you are planning to do a replay someday.
Also, part of the reason Matt was so underutilized is because he can die fairly early (the deer situation is his first possible death). With the exception of Emily, characters in this game pretty much become irrelevant after they can possibly die, and any lines/scenes they do have are designed so they can be easily given to another character or cut altogether. Which is also why Chris is basically a background character in chapters 9 and 10. No matter how badly you fuck up with them, Mike and Sam can't die until the final scene with the Wendigos in the cabin, because they're so vital to everything else around them.