I don't even remember if I read your post correctly. I was under the influence of cheap red wine (cautionary tale kids, don't drink cheap wine during working hours, or don't drink and try to engage in conversation, either verbal or written). Now I'm under the influence of a much better wine so I think I can see what you mean but my point still stands. Singing regularly with a stronger technique shouldn't damage the voice, I agree, but it still takes a higher toll than recording for ex.

Anyway, if the technique was good, why is his voice shot now? Is it just failing to take care of it after the tour? Is it age catching up with Jon at last? Is it bad lifestyles choices? Is it something else? The answer falls somewhere in between I'd say, specially in the light of everything that happened between the end of TC/GH tour and now.

While logic says "If he sounded ok at the beginning of 2013 but worse than at the beginning of the previous tour and his voice has been in a very steep decline since then, this is Jon's fault for not taking proper care of his main instrument", common sense also says that if he didn't change the singing technique that sustained and improved his voice from 2008 to 2011, there has to be some natural decline too, regardless of how hard he could have worked to prevent it. But that natural decline seems too radical from early 2013 to 2015, and it doesn't account for his sudden transformation into Jon the statue glued to the mic. I find it hard to believe he can't move because now all of a sudden he's always out of breath when he wasn't two years ago (based in my personal observation of older men with worse lifestyles and/or medical respiratory conditions who do vigorous physical exercise regularly) unless there's something else. Either a health problem he doesn't want to talk about, which is his prerogative tbh, or like the voice coach said, an aging voice AND hitting a very rough patch. That's why I'm on the fence, I see why some say it's an easy excuse, but I also see why there's no other logical explanation for such a huge decline.

In any case, I don't see how his voice can improve if he hasn't regained his 2013 voice back (an easy start point, really). I see why he's not confident enough to be the frontmant he used to be, but sadly I can't see this changing unless somehow they manage to keep touring after 2017/18 and somewhere along the way Jon gets used to having Phil and Shanks as his sidekicks. In my mind both things are related but Jon seems unable to juggle both things (sing decently and move around) so we are stuck with this