For me, the self-centred and self-pitying attitude was understandable considering he was a leper (this same self-centred view is what keeps him from harm through his VSE). Also, this attitude (I felt) always left the Land somewhat ambiguous and the reader is never quite sure whether it is an alternate reality or a manifestation of Covenant's illness - a battle between himself and his own disease. This ambiguity, incidentally, was why the chapter Gilden Fire was dropped from The Illearth War as it leaned too much towards alternate reality and destroyed the ambiguous nature of the story.
My view for what it's worth
