I think she cared at the beginning, and I think he opened up to her in their online conversations about his "problem" because he said she made him promise to quit before she moved in. If that's true and not some pig-lie, that makes this all a lot more sad, and it shows he knows he has a problem and viewed Kat as someone he could talk to and who could help. But, of course, the pigroach prevails and he just went right back to it and completely memoryholed his come-to-jesus, heartfelt, agreement with her about his addiction and went back for the sweaty man jpeg dopamine. Like with most addictions, people try to help but keep getting burnt by broken promises, theft, etc. I'm sure Khet is at this point cause there is absolutely no way she doesn't notice a ~100k habit. They have certainly had to dip into her paycheck before cause he's had negative and very low balances for days at a time according to the leaks.
On top of that, let's flesh out what went down with his mom. I know we like to joke about him taking the $4k and making his '10 year promise' and then completely memory holing all that, but consider the timeline leading up to it when it comes to his mobile gaming addiction.
As you point out, he may have tried to quit the mobile gaming when Kat arrived. By the time they were getting married, he had to order wifi on the plane so that 'they' could play mobile games that he had previously indicated he had quit, suggesting he was already relapsed. He then got married (on his parents' dime) while he was there and made the $4k promise, taking the cash in lieu of his parents covering the cost of a honeymoon. He claimed this was for a tax payment. He then declared bankruptcy a few months later.
That $4k seemed to have done nothing to turn the tide on his financial fortunes.
Thus, I would argue, it's likely a large chunk of it was blown on Champions. Based on his emergency financial crises that are currently coinciding with larger Champions events, and in the earlier days Phil would have had more opportunities to spend constantly while he built his roster, he is certainly indicating that he will ask for large sums with the clear intent of throwing it at the game.
It's one of those things that, at the time, we chalked up to Phil just being bad with money and fucked that hard with debt. But if the patterns we're seeing now were true then, it's quite possible that Phil's addiction was already so out of control that he
scammed his own mother and
threw away a honeymoon with his wife so that he could roll some gacha. That's... pretty fucking concerning if even partially true.
So you do check for those way before you anounce it? When? He's such a slimy fuck, Jesus Christ...
To me, the worst part of this constantly shifting narrative is the intent behind it all.
Looking at these tips over the last year, Phil changed when he read them (moved it to before break from after break), their origins (said the were behind the scenes, then said he didn't know why they didn't trigger popups, then admitted it again), the number of people doing them (said they were all different people, then insinuated it was two people), and explicit banned the use of the SilentBob name for sock tipping.
Phil has been actively experimenting with the most effective narratives and ways to use these tips to his advantage, and that 'advantage' means pulling more money. So he's not just being sleazy and hiding money until it's convenient, he's being sleazy to the point where he's trying to use the information to manipulate people, and it's clear that truth and transparency mean nothing to him in this process.
Never mind anything else, whatever is going on with these tips is proof alone that he is intentionally scamming.
