In Family what do you think Picard's life would have been like if he had chosen to stay rather than return to the Enterprise? I was thinking about that and it brought up some interesting possibilities. Just curious what anyone thinks would happen: Would Q still pop up and test him if he was exploring the sea instead of space? Would the crew respect his decision and would Starfleet try to force him to come back? Possibly have saved his family from the fire and gotten married?
I think Q would have helped him in a counselor-like role - taunting him as a coward who is running away and forcing him to take a hard look at who he really is and wants to be. Kind of like Tapestry, but more potent and more worthy of both characters and their relationship. I think the crew would have pitied him, and would have feared the Borg even more for having broken a man who had earned their respect and admiration a hundred times over. I doubt he would rescue Robert and Rene. It's highly unlikely that he'd be living in his brother's basement so many years later, even if he wasn't away studying some oceanic anomaly. It's more likely their deaths would further push Picard into his depression and deepen his sense of loss... first losing himself, and then losing his family -- the foundation of who he once was.
We already had a Piccard under the sea in Trieste. That was not the last vehicle to go that deep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger
Okay, he looks good in the blue uniform. But would I want to do stoinky with a guy who carries reports around the ship and sits a console all day and makes sure the nucleonic teterine levels in the waste water treatment process level one stay between .004 and .009 mg ppmillion? Probably not. Although, if I was the one inside the waste water tank scraping teterine from the sides of the tank, it's possible that the console worker would seem pretty impressive. So, I'm up in the air about the whole thing. But sometimes it's just time to move on. Sometimes there might be a point where you just decide that whatever is not feeling the same for you as it used to. I gave up riding my Harley because it just wasn't as fun anymore as more and more people text and drive. It's possible Picard could suddenly see that death is one thing, but that there are worse things than death. Killing thousands of your own people due to mind control could certainly qualify. Further, what if they had not been able to retrieve him? The thought of spending the rest of your life as a Borg could take a lot out of wanting to "explore new life and new civilizations". I wouldn't have faulted him at all for leaving Starfleet.
They die at the beginning of Generations. I don't think Picard could have possibly stayed away from Starfleet. It's just baked into his character. He may long for a home and a family but he would never be happy as anything but an explorer.