Thats a narcissistic con image to me. Over-portraying the role as having sense "above it all" and having "ethical" concerns. While actually being a total hapless lazy wuss to his condition looking for the shortcuts and excuses, finding the "seams" for the easy route. If he was that nice and great guy like how a Corey Brewer seems to be, he'd work on his weaknesses and be accommodating to solutions, not acting out stubborn, rebellious and deflective posing as a "voice of consciousness" how he did
I agree with a lot of what you said, but I am not sure Royce took "the easy route". The easy route would have been to do show up and do the least amount possible, and cash out until you got cut.