I can't speak for fathers, because I have mine. He was not around (military) but he was still a phone call away.

But I didn't have my mother. And two of my brothers did. From their experiences, I suppose its better to not have the parent at all than living with an abusive parent. Except, instead of dealing with physical problems, you end up with major abandonment issues, unwilling to trust people, missing out on "normal" life experiences that a person is supposed to experience with that parent (shopping for first bra, baking, yelling, buying prom dress, etc.). As a female, I was forced to miss out on motherly and grandmotherly experiences because my grandmother tried to be all three (mother, father and grandmother).

I still think it'd be a tad worse to have had to physically experience their neglect.

In either case, I think the "crazy you know is more comfortable than the crazy you don't know."