Your main point is excellent but it is your aside regarding twelve step programs that grabbed my interest. My father suffered from alcoholism and has been sober now for close to 25 years. I believe AA played an important role in his recovery. HOWEVER, I do agree with some commenters that the process is "culty" and "weird" to an outsider having experienced a few meetings in person in support of my dad (i.e. receiving his 5 year token).

All that said, my biggest issue related to how the "sponsor" relationship worked. The process for getting a sponsor seemed to be some form of meritocracy based on the length of time a person had been sober. The clear assumption was the longer you had been sober, the better a sponsor you could be to persons new to the program.

The problem with this logic is that Alcoholics have many personal problems that stem from their addiction to alcohol. Stopping the drinking is simply a first "Step" (see what I did there?) in putting your life back together. The sponsor seemed great on the drinking part but in my dad's case, his sponsors became a bit of a hideously underqualified life coach as well. For dad, his ability to filter the sponsor's good advice received regarding his drinking habits from the poor advice he received on how to handle problems with his marriage, professional career, and finanical issues was non-existent. I can't speak for anyone else, but this devotion my father had to his sponsor over anyone else in his life was one of the primary reasons why I came to despise the program over time.