Maybe a person has to be a little...um...eccentric, shall we say...to be a composer in the first place?
The saddest thing about Satie was that he was a very serious drinker, and died of cirrhosis. But he was a recognized and successful composer (though he never hung onto money) which is pretty hard to accomplish in and of itself, worked with artists like Picasso on projects, and was also a published writer. I don't remember if it was newspapers or magazines.
I recall reading that he was part of a circle of composers who were considered avant-garde at the time, Including Ravel and Debussy.
So regardless of his peccadilloes, of which I'm sure there were many, he was an accomplished person. It was really a shame about his drinking, and he died in his fifties.
I never read that he had syphilis, but I'll take your word for it!
He and his work are remembered 100 years after his death. That's pretty good, though obviously he's too dead to care. I will be remembered by no one at all after my death, but that fact will be equally irrelevant to me as well.