One of the best podcasts I listened to about parenting it said parents are gardeners not carpenters.

We can try to learn about and tend to the plant we are given to care for. We water, feed etc but we aren’t going to turn an oak into a Venus flytrap into a stinkweed or a bird of paradise. 

We can do our best to help the plant grow that emerges. 

A carpenter has a lot more control. Gardening isn’t like that.

I think I am missing the mark a little about speculating about his childhood. I really don’t know where you put it on the abuse spectrum. I just think it’s notable, much like Michael Jackson’s, that there was violence, fear, child labor and being the family star. Star among older outshone sibling as you  said. I think Jackson was guilty and should have gone to prison. I worry I look like I think it’s an excuse and I very much do not. I do think his upbringing was some sort of catalyst, someone above my pay grade can speculate on how he might have turned out with less bizarre parenting.