The VR guys were just less willing to turn a blind eye to it. Scott wasn't their meal ticket as much as he was for the Wildabouts. Even with a now defunct VR, most of those guys have landed in fairly profitable places. Probably won't be able to say the same for the Wildabouts, Joey excluded.
I know what you're saying, but this is as good an opportunity to say that I'm a firm believer that it's BECAUSE of Scott that the guys in VR, especially Slash, are currently where they're at. Scott was the difference between VR being VR and just being Snakepit version 3.0 (regardless of Duff & Matt's involvement). With the second Snakepit album, Slash had a difficult time (if I remember correctly) just getting a distribution deal for "Ain't Life Grand". And that fizzled quicker than it took to release.
Scott catapulted and legitimized the "Project" and gave Slash (and others) a second shot at a rock career. That's not necessarily to say that Slash couldn't eventually have done it without VR, but we don't know that he would either. Scott was the biggest reason they became relevant again, in my opinion - which in turn, got me a little salty when they scoffed at Scott trying to reunite VR when HE needed THEM.
Agreed, I'm not trying to marginalize Scott's impact on VR, I'm just saying Slash, Duff, etc had more opportunities available for them in a post-Scott world than the Wildabouts did (including reuniting the original GNR, which seems to be gaining more and more traction), and as a result, had less to lose by pushing back against Scott or telling him like it is. Eventually, it just all became too much and they cut ties with him.
The Wildabouts were more or less replaceable, so when one guy couldn't handle it anymore, Scott let him pack his bags and brought in Joey who either didn't mind or didn't notice. That was the advantage Scott had with having his own band, he could handpick people who, while talented, would be willing to put up with his shit for the opportunity to play with him.
It was less the "lack of a support group" but lack of a group of people who felt they could stand up to him.