So much for Nicko remaining a member of the band

[Vaenyr]

You don't know any of this, though. You're just drawing your own conclusions based on publicly-available information just like everyone else. These are not "facts".

These are the closest thing to facts we have. Occam's razor and all that.

- Nicko and Maiden separated on great terms.

This one's pretty easy to see by how both parties are talking about each other. Nicko still plays Maiden material, including stuff like The Parchment. The band sends him nothing but love. He's constantly joking about them and complimenting them.

- Nicko was the one who wanted to stop, he wasn't fired or pushed out.

This is according to direct quotes by Nicko. Any claims of the contrary are nothing but conspiracies and have no backing at the time.

- The band clearly enjoys playing with Simon.

This is clearly evident. You can see how much fun they are having on stage. Dave is entirely revitalized and steals the show every night. Adrian of all people is bantering with the other band members and even with the audience, something he's not known to do to that degree. Steve and Janick are basically unchanged, Bruce is all smiles almost all the time. Trying to deny how much fun they're having playing at the moment is silly.

- Simon is definitely worthy of taking over drumming duties and has more than enough chops to deliver in the studio.

Where's the disagreement on this? Have you listened to his performances on previously recorded albums? The man is a professional. I've also heard him in person and in my opinion he is absolutely worthy of taking over. Apparently a huge chunk of the fandom thinks so too and they were won over.

- He is obviously the next permanent member.

I can absolutely guarantee you that we won't be seeing many changes in the line up anymore or a rotating list of drummers. There's a reason Steve chose a drummer he's been playing with for a decade at this point.

Again: Any claims to the contrary would need to bring some mightily convincing evidence. At this point this evidence doesn't exist.