I honestly don't buy the "Scott had to keep touring just to pay alimony and bills." He seemed to have no interest in changing things up and trying something like Chris Cornell - intimate shows in larger clubs that can be better monetized rather than random state fair and casino gigs with increasingly diminishing returns. I think the truth is that Scott didn't want to change his schedule or his lifestyle. It's the bubble he had permanently encased himself in - taking time off meant having time to look in the mirror and face reality, and the endless gigging was an escape from having to do that. A fix is never far away on the road, be it pills, coke, you name it.
I think the real Scott died several years ago - the last bit of him likely right before Doug finally had to part ways with him. It's tragic that a man so haunted by his own abandonment appears to have done the same to his own children, but honestly that's pretty common - when you go down the road Scott did, you become the thing you hate the most, and you repeat the exact same destructive behavior that was done to you.
I have no qualms with Mary's letter - it's incredibly poignant, and I don't think she shares anything we didn't already know if we're being honest with ourselves. As for the guy blasting her that she wasn't allowing Scott to see the kids, can you really blame her? Watch the video from April - would *you* let him see your kids? Speaking as the parent of three young kids, I wouldn't. Sadly, it was likely better for the kids not to see him at all than to see him in the state he has likely spent most of the last decade in.
Scott probably had more influence on me and was more important to me than any other artist I've followed in my life, and I've been mourning his loss and listening to his music for the better part of a week now, but the fact is, as brilliant as he was, and as much as he meant to us, we knew he was in complete denial, and we didn't really want to know how bad things had gotten - we had a feeling they were really bad after first the band and then Doug had to abandon him, but we wanted to fool ourselves into thinking he would get better, or was at least doing better than he looked, when we knew that our worst suspicions were likely true.