If Abaddon/Alpert/Widmore are altogether could it had been when Alpert did the test to see if Locke was their way to getting the island back Alpert didn't think Locke was the "chosen one" then when Abaddon visit John knowing somehow he'd wind up on the island and would be the key to getting the island back. To me that's putting too many together. What if it's Widmore and Alpert are both trying to get the island for themselves trying to outwit each other in doing so, and Abaddon is working both sides because he wants the island to himself.
Was it ever reveal who was the leader before Ben took over, could it had been Abaddon and Ben pulled some kind of stunt like "move the island" and proclaim himself to be the leader. We hadn't seen if Alpert, Abaddon or Widmore had been on the island. I'm not completely sure that who Locke see was the same Richard as we seen when he was given something that told him the man who con Locke was on the island maybe that's why Locke didn't reconize him. You could see when the teacher was telling the teen Locke about Alpert from Portland he knew the name, unless Locke can remember names but not faces.
My head hurts too much from thinking about these things haha.

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Standing in the ocean with the sun burning low in the west
Like a fire in the cavernous darkness at the heart of the beast
With my beliefs and possessions, stopped at the frontier in my chest
At the edge of my country, my back to the sea, looking east