This.
No stretch to imagine that he controlled how others moved within the home. Rooms no one was allowed into. I know of such a situation. No serial killing but inherited home, hoarding, serious social/mental dysfunctioning. The original parents' (notably the mother's) bedroom, maintained, almost like a shrine, no one allowed in. An office, walled in by stacks of newspapers and magazines, another room into which no one dared to go. Whole house in disrepair, rife with a million unfinished projects. And the argument: yes, I'll get to it but I don't have unlimited time. I work hard to provide for you.
Subtext: don't question me, don't make demands. Learn to live with it. Learn your place.
For them: good morning, Cognitive Dissonance. Hello, Powerlessness and Resignation.
IMO you're right. The whole house was his binky, his comfort zone. In the state it was. Don't wash his binky, don't fix his binky, don't touch his binky, don't question his binky.
Yikes.