While The Flash season 7 continues to bring back Sue Dearbon, the Arrowverse drama does not fully address what is going on with Ralph Dibny. In 2020, Hartley Sawyer, who played the DC Comics superhero Elongated Man since The Flash season 4, was fired by Warner Bros. TV ahead of the seventh season. Sawyer's termination resulted from multiple old tweets that had resurfaced, which were racist and misogynistic. Once his previous tweets were in the spotlight, it didn't take long before Sawyer's contract with The Flash was ended abruptly. Given that Ralph had been a Team Flash member, the show had to write the character out at the start of The Flash season 7.
Due to the pandemic preventing The Flash season 6 from finishing its three remaining episodes, it carried over into the ongoing season. Post-Flashpoint Elongated Man and Sue had to keep a low profile due to the latter being framed for murder. However, by the time they came back, Ralph's face had been completely burned and messed up, which is why he had to be put in a healing chamber. The last time Ralph was physically seen was in the third episode, "Mother," as a helmet covered up his face since his face was still healing. As Sue and Ralph left Central City to take down other Black Hole-like organizations in the world, the former came back in the second half of The Flash season 7.
Even though Sue referenced that "Ralph is still busy," there is no real clarification as to what the Elongated Man is actually up to currently. That begs the question of why The Flash is not dealing with Ralph's status and what the future for the DC hero actually looks like in the Arrowverse. It boils down to a few things, starting with the Sawyer controversy, which is obviously something they want to move on from after last year. Since his elastic powers let him shapeshift, why not just recast Ralph Dibny? Given their big cast, it's not necessarily easy to just cast another actor as Ralph and have him back full-time.
Had that been the case, they would have probably upgraded Sue to a series regular, as she is instead showing up for a few spots. The other factor to consider is that the show is called The Flash, not Elongated Man, so technically, they don't really have to continue explaining where Ralph is in the Arrowverse every episode. They also don't have to "resolve" any unanswered questions because they gave Ralph and Sue a new storyline that works off-screen, though recasting Ralph in a Secret Six storyline could work. However, having given Ralph that story arc offscreen allows The Flash or any other Arrowverse show to recast Ralph and bring him back, should they ever want to in the future.
If they really wanted to, they could have killed Ralph off, which they didn't since Sawyer's actions shouldn't mean a fictional character has to be completely removed from the franchise altogether. However, at this point, it feels safe to say the Arrowverse is done with Ralph, and it would be hard to imagine any of the shows revisiting him any time soon. As far as The Flash is concerned, the Elongated Man doesn't necessarily fit into the overall story anymore. Instead, The Flash benefits from focusing more on fleshing out their newer members of Team Flash, Allegra and Chester. It's also great for The Flash to still use Sue every now and then as she is a character who isn't dependent on Ralph just because they were a romantic couple in the comics.