Simon Cowell isn't mean. He simply knows how extremely difficult it is to make it in the music industry. "American Idol" is an open-door opportunity to anyone and it's part of his job to weed out the tuneless, tone-deaf, disillusional wannabes among the really aspiring singers with that so-called X-factor.
Imagine if Simon has gone sugary soft like Paula Abdul, there'll be mutiny in the show. When someone auditions, they have to sound not OK, but fantastic. If Simon weren't in the show, Paula and Randy would've lead American Idol to its inevitable death.
For me, Paula's just too patronizingly sweet, it makes me nauseous. She can't keep giving out false hopes to people who obviously think they stand out when they obviously weird the pants out of the audience.
And Randy... well, I prefer Randy to Paula, though I think it's pretty cool he's a buffer between Paula and Simon. He's like this black Buddha, always smiling. All we need to do now is make him do the lotus position.