>Something which I've come to believe does not exist, the pattern itself is broken.
>Paraphrasing Mencken, for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. Singleton is ever that answer.
Just because you haven't found a good use it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And about Mencken... All he said is that you can't have Singletons without having a Global State (obvious) and apparently he has an strong allergy to global states.
Global states are fine. Sure, they will make your tests harder but there are a lot of software that don't use unit test for legitimate reasons and hence don't have that problem.
That's true, although if it is a single instance but not global then you are not enjoying the benefits of the guaranteed of an unique instance.
A well used singleton is a great tool that simplify things a lot.