Dale was all mouth and no follow through.
Herschel was a quiet man of strength, talking quietly, counseling peaceful resolution, backed up by a readiness to kick ass and take names should the need arise.
True, the only thing Dale really had was compassion for other humans. That RV would have been real nice to have right around now though.
Say Merle had not made the run that cost him his hand, stayed around the camp to take what he wanted, as planned, and maybe have his way with an unwilling female or two. Dale would have been all compassionate while asking him to stop, pointing out how wrong he was to do what he was doing.
Had Herschel been there he would have asked him to reconsider once before capping his ass.