Yeah, personally I'd agree with the sort of fear of rejection etc.
Over in Europe, there's definatly more of a following to the illusion of how great they (the band,& axl) once were. I mean, they wouldn't have played Europe as regularly as they would have America so the novelty is there. It was like when Velvet Revolver played. I saw them in Ireland and Belguim, and I remember at the Belguim festival just being surrounded by all these 30year old bikers, completely marking out with a smile on their face- ear to ear- just because they were seeing Slash and Duff play.
The moral of the story: Europeans always go crazy for the imported rock stars of their youth and their value for them rarely goes stale.