I feel such empathy is not warranted for Chris. Yes, they had a sucktastic beginning, but so have a lot of people and despite the obvious mental handicaps of Autism, such things can and have been overcome by people.
With Chris, the Autism card and the bad upbringing card do not excuse him from doing things that he is obviously cognisant are against his long-term self interests but the short term is more desirable, consequences be damned. Case in point: the macing incident. The video recording clearly shows that he went into that Gamestop fully intending to use that mace and that he was aware he was still banned from that exact store. Indeed, he does a quick glance around right before macing the employee and then shuffling off, because he knew what he was about to do was going to get him in trouble without a valid reason and he did it anyway, later claiming he did have a valid reason (Narrator: he obviously never did).
The idea Chris is limited only goes so far, because numerous times people have tried to help him, but he will always retreat into his fantasies and short-term indulgences instead of making do with what he has and going for long-term permanent improvement of his life. It isn't that he isn't capable of changing, its that he simply refuses to change. In Alcoholics Anonymous, the first step is admitting that one has a problem.
Chris never in his entire life has ever admitted he has a problem or otherwise is not always in the right.
Even in the 'golden age' he was self entitled - the whole Bluespike thing for instance, where Chris had the choice between Julie (who was of course Bluespike all along) or the PSN accounts, Chris chose the former...but not because of any sense of morality, but because Chris had seen it was the moral choice in various media and he expected to get the girl and the PSN accounts because it was the 'right choice'. Entirely self-serving. And to this day, under the weird-ass video game goddess merge prophet schtick, Chris really hasn't changed at the core.