I think when it came to his perfectionist side, Steve saw eye-to-eye with Scott, but it takes more than that, to successfully run a company so he picked Tim, an excellent negotiator and a man with a proven track record on the supply-side of things --two qualities where Scott might have been lacking-- to take on the helm, in the knowledge that Jony was still there to look after the aesthetics part of the business.
Even perfectionists fail sometimes. Maps was on the shoulders of Scott, and I believe that it is there, where he sealed his fate at Apple. He should have manned-up, and publicly apologized for Maps' many shortcomings, rather than let Tim do his 'dirty work'.
If he had swallowed his pride, and publicly apologized for the MAPS disappointment, TC would have not been in such a hurry to purge him from the team. SCOTT could have taken a cue from BOB MANSFIELD, who publicly acknowledged that withdrawing from EPEAT was a mistake.
http://www.apple.com/environment/letter-to-customers/ Letting the CEO do the 'dirty' work, is never a good thing.
As far as your third observation is concerned, it is indeed ironic that in spite of Steve's wishes to not be concerned with thinking what he might have done in a particular situation,
that is exactly what even now, two years later, still crops up with regularity, here, and on other rumor sites and tech blogs.
10/05/2011-10/05/2013


R.I.P Steve, Thanks for your many contributions!