Excellent thoughts pronker, but knowing AP, when I saw Starsky, I wondered if Youssy was Hutch?
AP's story and reality often have nothing to do with each other. We know from Seasons 1 & 2 that as they filmed, the individual personalities of the meerkats became known to the producers etc.
Once this happens they begin to identify those that will become the *top kats* which results in an meerkat character based story. AS you say the meerkats drive the storyline.
They must taken hundreds of hours of footage to get the *Character* with the *behavior* they want. But it is also what got them into trouble with Shakespeare. The little guy disappeared on them....they wanted him to be in a humongous battle scene with Big CY...but he wanted to go roving and start a family down the riverbed or across the reserve at the farm,so they substituted another meerkat, our Snickerdoodle in the battle with Big Cy and said here's Shakespeare.
But then where was Shakes in Season 2? No one knows or so they say.
I think we will still see AP's story, based on what has happened to our Whiskers to a certain degree, but not to the absolute truth. That will be read on the KMP site...someday.
If it turns out to be word for word what we see on Meerkat Manor, I will eat that scorpion, chocolate covered please!

Obviously much is different for the Whiskers. Without knowing all that had happened before the day I heard Flower died, everything about the Whiskers changed immediately with that horrific news.
I had learned about the meerkat way of life and knew what to expect with the death of the dominant female...the battles, the challenges from within, the possible split, more Whiskers' deaths, our Whiskers males roving as they must to find mates, but the Whiskers, ah, my little Whiskers.
I will not root for them or against them. The Whiskers, no matter what the future holds, will always occupy a special place in my heart...the names we have come to know and love. I will watch the AP story with a heavy heart, but realize I am watching a great desert wildlife epic and the times must change as must the *stars*.

But I will still wonder what has really happened to the Whiskers?
We still have seasons 4 & 5 ahead of us. There is still a great and grand story to be told.
In this case nothing can ever be quite the same again.
We will just have to see how AP takes its story.