I took over a team that had 10 scholarships to fill and 2 worthless SIM players returning. One of the SIM players is a sophomore with a WE of 1, so I wanted to run him off (and get the scholarship $$$ as opposed to getting no money after cutting him). He played in only 11 games for a total of 50 mins (4.5 mpg) and was completely off my depth chart for the last 10 or so games. 

But he never complained to me and because his WE is 1, I have no way of checking to see if he is dissatisfied (it's not like he is going to drop 7 in WE). If he doesn't send me the email complaining, does that mean is he likely planning on returning?

Even if he sends email complaining, he's very unlikely to leave. Since you've made no promises to the kid, getting them to leave is definitely the exception rather than the rule (as opposed to blown minutes/starts promises). I've never had a 1 WE guy on my teams, but I don't think work ethic is linked at all to the complaint emails, so if you haven't heard from him the entire season, you're probably stuck with Mr. Wonderful returning for another year or having to cut his butt at the end of this season. 

On a buddy's team he just had a guy transfer. He was a Soph averaging about 5 min and he played in every game. He never got a complaint email or saw a WE drop. Just got an email saying "see ya!" After the season.

Sounds ticket worthy to me - don't think that should have happened.