Baby sitter fatigue! that is just BS. There is 0 information on that topic from these guys to even discuss it.
Both Robert and Phil are very familiar with PHPbb setup and tweaking. This ain't their first rodeo. Copy paste and edit phpconfig, set the admin permissions and build the forums and categories.
They knew about the personalities, ups and downs and grays of running a board. No bad guy ran them off, they have attention deficit like I do and get absorbed in the next thing that gets their attention.
I reject out of hand that Phil or Robert are too thin skinned to handle a wiseacre or two.
On another note, before Robert pulls the plug someday, we should all join a companion board so we can locate all the past members for when this one gets it lights turned off.