A few thoughts. Part of my kind of mean way of thinking is that alcoholics may not deserve benefits of being legally bound to others period. I'm divorcing my AH, even if he completely sobered up I'm not ready to be legally bound to him, too many what-ifs that I don't want to tie myself and my daughter to him (i.e. if he caused an accident and we were sued).
My AH attorney advised him to NOT pay off his credit cards, since that debt may be split between the two of us as part of the finalization. Sucks for me since that debt is all his and for silly stuff like booze and man toys. Maybe it'll stay his, but if you show the debt as marital/household, likely would be split.
In my state, no such thing as separation, divorce process is at least 6 months (with nothing contested). I'll be lucky to have mine finalized 1 year from the serve papers point. And at any point in the process, I could say, oh let's forget it and not go forward. So in some ways, no reason not to take the initial steps, especially if you have uncontested issues and don't intend to get attorneys.
On the other hand, you'll hear and I agree with the phrase 'divorce is awful, avoid it if you can'.