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I totally understand what you mean by it already being 'flawed' by KSW. And I agree. Finding any workable tech in the Church now is kind of like picking glass out of your food. But those who believe in the tech are still going to believe in it.
If Tom were to take over the Church, you're quite right - a lot of the "outies" WOULD stream back in. New people WOULD flood back in because of Tom. It would be their salvation. Depending on your viewpoint, this is either a good thing or a bad thing.
Free the Orgs and set them all free to run themselves? Now that's an idea... Let the strong survive... That's one option I hadn't thought of.
Finding workable tech in Scientology isn't like picking broken glass out of food... it's more like picking food out of broken glass. There are other (better) sources of food.
Tom Cruise as the leader of Scientology strikes me as unworkable for a number of reasons. Which isn't to say that he'd be worse for Scientology than Miscavige was... just that it still wouldn't survive.
First up, Tom Cruise doesn't understand Scientology. He's only ever been exposed to Celebrity Centre Scientology. He can have no notion of what life is like as an abused staffer, or as somebody who has maxed out their loans and credit cards to pay for services. Also, I doubt he understands the extent to which Scientology is run on fear. If he becomes leader and these things are revealed to him, he could blow... ending this Scientology resurgence that you imagine.
The Church of Scientology without fear, crush regging, imprisonment, disconnection, Fair Game... isn't the Church of Scientology. While it's cute to imagine independents doing their own thing, they aren't making Scientology work (MSW) either. A Freezone org would still have to slog through the same Hubbardian rat race - designed to keep people paying, and to keep them from completion and the realisation that they haven't acquired what was promised - or that Freezone org would ditch some of the 1950s era talking therapy and try something else ("let the strong survive")... which would be squirrelling. So that wouldn't be Scientology either.
The idea that Tom Cruise would cause people to flood in may be flawed, given the state of Tom Cruise's career. He's not exactly an A-list celebrity just now... and one of the things that has made him a less attractive prospect in Hollywood, is Scientology. He's not just 'Tom Cruise' anymore, but 'Wacko, couch-jumping, only-one-that-can-help Tom Cruise (and Poor Katie)'. That's how the gossip mags discuss them now. With that same "what's he gone and done now?" thing of waiting for the other shoe to drop, rather like the later years of Michael Jackson. Heading up a pseudoreligion with Tom Cruise may be hitching your wagon to a falling star.
The issue of "getting people back in" speaks volumes. Yes, Scientology shed more that half its membership in the first ten years of this century. As a business, it's been making ex-members (and heaps of money) for six decades now... but it wasn't until relatively recently that the number of victims leaving exceeded the number of victims coming in. To assume that people are leaving because of Miscavige is a very narrow view. It's the one that Marty Rathbun has adopted, and it depends upon the notion that Scientology itself is untarnished and that only D.M.'s efforts have caused the failure of Scientology. Trouble is, a person who becomes an ex-Scientologist tends to start reading. It doesn't take long for a person (who, after all, is interested in 'knowingness') to read Russell Miller, Jon Atack, Janet Reitman, ESMB, FactNet, Operation Clambake... and then they discover incontrovertible evidence that Ron Hubbard wasn't a war hero and that (in the words of former cult spokesdrone Tommy Davis)
the injuries never existed; therefore, Dianetics is based on a lie; therefore, Scientology is based on a lie. It doesn't take too many revelations of that kind to remove the scales from a person's eyes, reveal the whole scam... and ensure that they will never again subscribe to Hubbardism. They won't return to Ron-worship under Tom Cruise, Tom Jones, or Thomas Aquinas.
Finally, why does Scientology need to survive at all? Ron is gone. Scientology was made by Ron, for Ron. He's dead: he no longer needs it. That's one of the reasons why he didn't establish rules for succession... because when
he can no longer benefit from it, it's of no value.