Am I correct in thinking that the payout an addresses will get, is directly related to the number of shares in the chain that were found by that address?

Since shares are constantly dropping off the chain, you have to keep finding shares, otherwise as your shares drop off the chain, your payout will also drop?

If you have a dry spell your payout will drop, because more shares are dropping off than are being found.
Likewise if you have a hot spell your payout will increase as more shares are added than dropped.

How do dead and orphaned shares fit into this?

Is this a reasonable accurate understanding?  

ADVthaAnksNCE