The Cigar was too dangerous. It probably took as long as it did to hit him because the Commission had to find out who was with who.
I think the main reason he got whacked was because he didn't want to share his Sicilian heroin pipeline with the other families. "Follow the money" is always a good bet when diagnosing Mob hits.
Absolutely. He thought his pipeline was his personal property because he was probably one of the main principals who set it up, if not the main principal. Now why he thought he was stronger than the other four families could be chalked up to mental instability, or treachery. Maybe he had secret backing from some bosses who then pretended to know nothing of him when he became persona non grata.
Someone pretended to be on his side behind the scenes. Obviously the Sicilians did. I suspect some from New York also.
In the end he came off looking like a psychopath who flipped off the entire Commission and thought the Sicilians would side with him against all of New York. That makes no sense and I highly doubt that scenario.
