Fully willing to admit I'm wrong on this, but what if Ralph is pulling the long con? Tinfoil post incoming:
He's been around long enough to know what draws in viewers. His streams were most popular when covering ongoing dramas. When Tonka/Warski died off, he reverted to his go-to format and watched his numbers dwindle. With the move to DLive, he lost even more but continued with his usual show.
He knew this wasn't working out, and if he can't find a compelling drama to follow, why not create his own?
He uses his real life circumstances (sick mother, dead father, broken friendships) to recreate himself as a drunken, pathetic heel -- maybe even in coordination with Gator, Flam, and others.
He gets the dumpster fire going with the Soph stream, stokes it with the mom call, and really gets it rolling with Pillstream. All eyes are on him. Most will tune in to see how much worse it can get, but they'll still tune in.
He slowly but surely loses the slurring, drunken behavior; the tech issues resolve; new co-hosts come on board -- all while streaming to double his pre-meltdown numbers. Hell, he already has Dick, DamƩ, BlackPidgeon booked, and his tweets are actually coherent. Momentary sobriety or something else?
What if he dun goofed us?