Thanks Found. Yeah, I agree pretty much with everything you are saying. There is a core practice which enshrines individual freedom, and then a religious mesh supplanted on top of that by a self-unaware group dynamic.
I think Bill Wilson's writing vacillates from a respect of freedom, to threats, which is pretty much the human condition and the stuff of alcoholism and is probably fairly autobiographical. If you receive the text as gospel, how else is this going to turn out?
On 'over thinking,' in lieu of data, I think 'cunning baffling and powerful' is a perfect example of this. Addiction can feel that way for sure, though, but Feelings Aren't Facts. What is the simple? What is investigation? A scientist might say, the simple is the revealed. Keep it simple stupid, the earth is flat, alcoholism is an allergy! I've always found that the most ridiculous assertion, having suffered from various actual allergies, but again, its an artifact of the era wherein addiction was not understood. People observed some people apparently moderating and others falling into the gutter, so maybe those people had an allergy.