well, I have been having mixed feelings about Peyton
I like Claire as an actress very much, she is very pretty and her beauty is kinda mysterious for me... she looks like a statue here:
But! when I'd found out that she will be with Mac before 3rd season started I had known that it will be impossible for me to like her, cos I am totally smacked
and gosh, I tried so much not to like her! I still remember that when I heard her lovely British accent in the 3x01 I thought "great, how am I supposed to hate her while she speaks that way?!?"... so I didn't manage not to like her
she was like a fresh air for the show, she was funny and cute, she wasn't as thought and ass kicking as Stella, but it was good that they didn't make her that way. The only disadvantages of her character was that she was with Mac... but after all I do have to admit that I am glad that she
was with him, as you said, she brought really nice side of Mac to live and made him a normal man again, not a monk. And I even kinda have missed her character during the 4th season, but my smacked half keeps telling me that it is good that she is now away, cos there is room for another women in Mac's life and I am pretty sure that she would thank Peyton for making a Mac a better man.
Unfortunately, since there are some news about Mac's new love interest in season 5th, I think there is very low possibility that they will bring her back to the show... it would be strange and sorta 'soap opera' style, not CSI