Hypothetically you're right.
BUT...who's gonna pay Richie 2 million (or another fcuking big amount of money) to get back on stage? The ticket sales weren't radical worse without him. And with him they won't be able to sell radical more tickets for a big stadium tour either. We die-hards are the only ones who care about the guitarist.
So I don't see why anybody should invest big money into a guitarist, who is way out of his prime and left a muli-million-dollar business in the middle of a tour --> unreliable