I don't think the story wants readers to view Ryan as sympathetic, but rather as a pathetic husk of a human. A kind of worse-case future that Eque might have become had she gone down a path of irresponsibility and selfishness to escape her duties and her station.
I mean, I don't think (or perhaps, I just don't want to think) that the story would introduce its character as a pedophile, and then to say, "maybe he's right"