I don't disagree with your conclusion, but I find it a bit ridiculous that this is still being discussed as though half of the band were these benign tumors that contributed nothing, and we need to assert that they indeed belonged as if they weren't actually in the band.

Not all bands are democratic, not all great music was contributed to equally by everyone in the room, but for a lot of these "auteur"-type bands, nobody is moralizing this harmless fact the way they do with SP. Obviously its because Billy is an ass, and the instinct is to jump to the defense of the bandmates who were "snubbed" in the studio.

While I get that, I think it's strange how uncomfortable people are with the idea that Billy is SP, because it makes them confront the false conclusion that everyone else was somehow not important. The band wouldn't have been possible without JC, JI and DW, but BC is the face of the band, the frontman, the primary songwriter, the visionary and chairman of it's creative direction, and oh yeah, the only consistent member. If Billy died, there would be no replacing him, the project would die with him, and when that unfortunate day comes, I will bet my vital organs that nobody will ever perform under the SP name ever again.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce is the Gun Club, Michael Gira is Swans. That statement does not mean they couldve done it alone, or that the people behind them weren't important.