I think we're quickly approaching the point where even if he does come back the Coin's reputation is shot. This will provide FUD-munition for weeks and months to come and all the former hardcore backers will feel so put off and pulled through the ringer that it'll be awhile for things to get back to normal.
And with regards to a new team of dev's... Maybe...with a couple more months of trust to build. Mr. Spread started in July and it took 6-7 months for trust to be there and for the coin to truly take off. It seems in cryptoland, trust is built by commitment. I felt that after reading Mr. Spread's posts from July that he was smart and committed to making a good thing.
That's why this whole thing is so bizarre. I mean, he makes a coin with a cool premise, tacks on some cool features from Darkcoin, seems to have a good relationship with community, tests out an interesting concept then disappears or walks away or goes incommunicado halfway through testing and with money still on the table. Just doesn't make sense.
So either he's on a very extended vacation in China, or this is all a ploy to get as much cheap SPR as possible before reemerging with working masternodes, or something bad unfortunately happened to him or a family member or..... Mr. Spread is Satoshi or a wannabe. Frankly, this has more in common with Satoshi disappearing (smart anonymous dev, still holds large amounts of coin, ingenious idea) than anything else (minus a known backup Dev to take over).

JL