We all have a terminal illness - it's called life. The fact it went from "If I disappear for a long period, I'm dead," to "I'm dying, but got a few years left... just not going to touch the game," smells like a poorly thought out exit strategy that backfired. And I think it's a fucked up thing to pull, regardless.
I say this to the people who are delusional enough to think that no one would ever fake shit like that - it happens all the time online. Especially in regards to those who might find themselves financially motivated to garner sympathy. Other times, it's simply to get away with behavior that would never be deemed acceptable. Both of which you could argue are true here. The internet is full of people who are self-diagnosed with this or that, but it's also full of people faking everything from Tourette's to cancer and heart attacks. Physical disabilities, even. Barely a week goes by that some new rising e-celeb gets busted for faking shit like this.
I'm not saying he's lying in this case, but I do think the way he's gone about "announcing" it is fucked up. I doubted we'd see another update when he was coming up with a bunch of excuses early last year. To come back and see this - nah, I don't buy it for a second. Either way, he should've just initially made a public statement saying something like, "Due to personal reasons, I have to step away from the game for good."
We've seen devs of AVN's die during development, not to mention authors and such in the more mainstream. Dude was clearly burning out hard before all of this came to light. We'll never know the truth, but I'd rather find out he's a huge piece of shit and lying about this than find out its true. Even if he is a huge pos, I wouldn't wish something like that to actually be true.