I don't doubt that what you say is true in some cases. I just don't think it's always the case. And I'm certainly not advocating the forcing of a team & player stick together just to make 'me' (the fan) sentimentally happy. That would totally fly in the face of FA for the player. In fact, I ended my original post on the topic with....'assuming both sides want it to occur.' I just think there are plenty of cases where they're kind of forced apart for salary cap reasons.
SJ39 might be one case. He's already stated he wants to retire a Ram. And maybe he never would have had to leave if something along this line had been an option for him & the team to explore. Yes, there is the possibility that his ego may not have let him accept a reduced role as he aged, and maybe Fish just wanted to him to leave for whatever reason, but we'll never know.