Imagine being so enthralled by Ralph's "charms" that you can't bring yourself to break away from him for years. It's always nice to see people breaking out of toxic relationships but let's be real, he only broke away when Papa Jimbo started going HAM on Ralph. I think his thought process was less "I need to get out of this toxic relationship" and more, "I managed to get Jim on one of my streams, so I don't really need to be around Ralph for clout anymore."
He wasn't looking for independence, he was looking to trade up.