Schiller's backstory had now been completed.
But Stark did not know that Schiller was also filling in his own backstory. Mainly because he had no way of understanding anything beyond the Fourth Wall, he did not know that a character's backstory took a form similar to comic panels, let alone Schiller's motives.
But he could work backward from the outcome. Who had benefited the most from this journey through time with Schiller?
Stark did not think this past brought Schiller any particular benefit. If Schiller truly wanted to change it, why not change it into a past where he grew up safely and peacefully?
So, in Stark's eyes, the greatest beneficiary of these changes to the past was himself.
First, Howard and Maria's deaths had both been changed into Howard faking his death, while Maria had remained by his side all along, and Howard had later returned as well.
Although the final result was no different—Howard and Maria were both still alive—the difference was enormous for Stark himself, because his biological mother had been there through every sad, dejected, and bleak moment of his life.
Stark carefully sifted through all the details of his years with Maria in his mind. Even those terrifying hallucinations could no longer disturb him. To him, every single moment of the past twenty years had been a good one.
Second, because Maria had been there, she had always handled the logistical work. Although Pepper had later entered the company and become Stark's personal assistant, she had not been nearly as exhausted as she had been in the original timeline. Most of the time, she had merely assisted Maria. After all, what personal assistant could compete with someone's own mother?
Whenever Stark went off the rails in the past, Pepper had been the one beside him,