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I think the Stephen/Marcus only exists in edgic-world. There is a nuanced difference to their edits.

While Marcus got CP and MORs, he was over-exposed, in a pronounced leadership role, and declared the winner (or favorite) by everyone on this board, everyone on the show, and expected to win by all the fans.

Stephen, I think, is relatively hidden. I know this counts as purely qualitative, but I have friends who watch who still only know Stephen as 'JTs Friend'. His ratings stack up well, but he hasn't been over-exposed as a character.

And, from a few pages ago--
The kicker for me, the reason I think JT gets blind-sided in the next few episodes (Final 5 at the latest) is because of the editing discrepancy between how he thinks Stephen, and how Stephen thinks of JT.

JT likes Stephen. He "trusts him 100%".

Stephen has been shown, at every single stage of the game, to be using JT (and I use the word 'using' in the least negative form possible)
"JT is going to advance ME in the game"
"JT is going to teach ME how to survive in the wild"
"If JT goes out, it would be terrible for ME"

Could Stephen like JT personally? Sure. Have we been explicitly told this? No. (well, maybe we have...)

Add to that, Stephen lied to JT about the exile alliance (of course, I think the whole 'Taj hiding the idol in the most obvious place in the world' fiasco had to be shown on television to tell how Taj/JT/Stephen ended up in such a solid alliance. not much foreshadowing there.)

Both of their edits are about the game-play, but Stephen is about himself and JT is about the team.

Could JT win? Of course. But if it ends him vs. Stephen, I would expect there to be more from Stephen about 'the two of us' and how to save JT rather than his own ass:
"JT being voted out sucks. He's part of original Jalapao. We're friends"
rather than
"JT being voted out hurts MY game".

Maybe this develops over the next few episodes, or maybe Stephen's confessionals are just very self-referential and can't be edited otherwise but the discrepency between their two edits, foreshadowed from day one, combined with Stephen having alliances he has, in the show, kept secret from JT, screams that they'll be at odds at some point. Because we've been shown no indication that JT would ever turn on Stephen, I have to assume that Stephen is going to turn on JT. His story-arc is that he's the city-boy who knew nothing about nature and he rode JTs coat-tails until he was in a position to cut him loose.

JT, with all his 'honesty' talk, is being set up as one of the biggest martyrs in Survivor history, slated to win the fan favorites and return at all-stars to much avail.

And, non-edgically (because there's no edgic-based-reasoning to back this up), I can't see Stephen keeping JT around very deep in the game. He knows he'll never win a jury vote against him. The only way it's Stephen/JT in the final 2 is if JT goes on an immunity run.

If Stephen does stab JT in the back, I can see a scenario where Sierra still wins. She earns Coach and Tyson's jury vote, and finally redeems herself. She's still my number 2.

I can't see Brendan winning because of his lack of tone. No one cares about Brendan. The last episode was terrible for him. If he was the winner, he'd have been edited as being a martyr, not being clueless as to the talk of his demise. We were meant to feel no sympathy for Brendan, enforced by Taj and Stephen (with JT, the heroes) claiming that it was his fault that the exile alliance whimpered out.

Winner
1. Stephen

Tiny Gap
2. Sierra (very manipulated scene at feast)

Big Gap
3. Erinn

Eliminated
Tyson (Erinn has to out-last him)
JT (i might be here eating crow in a month or so)
Brendan (tone deaf)
Taj (bad first episode, her storyline has been replaced by JT/Stephen's)
Coach (way too OTT)
Debbie