I understand the sympathy for the pilot, but he clearly deviated from the STAR, was unable to maintain an assigned altitude, and was confused about an assigned heading. In short, he was unable to fly his aircraft to private pilot standards. So is that the controller’s responsibility to correct? In practice, Boston controllers are extremely professional, and generally courteous. Had this happened at JFK the reception would have been much more hostile. If this guy had tried flying to Chicago I’m not sure how this would have ended. It leaves questions about the pilot’s judgement. I thought the controller displayed lots of patience. The notification of a potential pilot deviation may have been necessary due to the sheer number of deviations that were occurring.