I want to focus on the FDW and what I proposed in my last theory “Alternative Timelines are not as a result of the incident”. What if turning the wheel is like what Des experienced with out the island moving? What if turning the wheel allows the past version of oneself to have future knowledge? Not in flashes like Des but the person knows what’s coming next and can make different choices in their lives, they have permanent future knowledge. That future knowledge would only last up to the point in time in which the future person experienced. IE only up to the point that they turned the wheel. Like Mrs Hawking said she didn’t know what was coming next. I know there’s another explanation for Mrs Hawking not knowing what’s coming next in relation to Faraday’s diary but maybe it’s not that.
Say when the wheel is turned it send a person’s body physically into the future but the island then is moved to the past. Would it be a definite equal correlation of time? IE Ben turns the wheel and moves 9 months into the future, would the island move back 9 months? Or would it be not direct correlation, maybe it doubles; I don’t know why I’m just thinking out loud sorry. Maybe it’s totally random or maybe depending on the island’s time travel cycle (sorry that’s reference to another mad theory where the island is stuck in a repeating time loop). That would mean that Ben would have the future knowledge of what is going to happen and he takes the lead of the Others. That could be why Richard said different people are leaders of the island at different times, it all depends on who turned the wheel.
We know that Widmore left the island and he was a leader at one point, Richard turned the wheel (when he went to visit John) and he became a leader, Ellie/Mrs Hawking did too!