I can empathize with Rick in many ways. I certainly don’t think that all of his actions were acceptable, and it does sound like management gave him the opportunity out that he did not take, but it is clear there was a management problem here.

Based on what little is shared here, I see Rick as a guy who was very capable of making complex things, and others knew it. For this reason, the stakeholders may have had the never-ending menu effect. They begin ordering tons of things that are difficult to make, simply because they know the capability is there

Rick seemed to want to deliver on all of those things because he can and he sincerely wants to show his worth (why else would he be sacrificing so much of his time), and ended up in a sad stalemate situation where he had been asked to do things only he knew how to do and he was so backlogged with work he could not imagine taking time to train others. To compound that, he was so stressed out by it that it began to drive him insane. It sounds like he didn’t feel like his efforts were appreciated which caused him to lash out saying foolish things (not that it was a wise thing for him to do).

I see that it’s entirely possible that after 2 years of hard work he was not shown appreciation for his dedication or efforts, but instead was told his work was all going to be thrown out and they were going to start over trying to just accomplish the bare basics. Of course he would be outraged by that, what do you expect from someone who has poured his entire soul into a project for two years then telling him that it’s going to be scrapped and instead of all of these wonderful things they ordered they are just going to get the bare basics?

I think management should have stepped in much sooner and worked with Rick rather than against him. I think given the right management strategy the team may have been able to have the best of all worlds. A happy and contributing Rick, a product that is well built, and a project that actually gets completed.