I'm not sure why you're defending them when we have no idea what their family dynamic is?

The virtues of “innocent until proven guilty” and being “charitable” about interpreting situations we have no business or ability to judge?

Self-deprecating humorous self-awareness is also a trifecta of positive signals to those that pick up on those frequencies.

A good explanation for why one would defend him was given earlier:

based on everything tim has written that shows extreme self-awareness about his working/productivity style, and the fact that he makes a lot of money for his family by doing occasional multi-day binges of work, i think it's fair to give him the benefit of the doubt

Giving people the benefit of the doubt makes the world a better place.