Come to think of it, this seems like a sensible take on the matter.
After all, dogs, cats, wolves, lions, and just about every other animal treat their young with loving care. So, why wouldn’t Neanderthals?
I think the earlier view of the matter was simply another brainless bow to Darwin and his “survival of the fittest.”
Sure, there is survival of the fittest, which leads to evolution within any species. (Whether general evolution accounts for all life forms is another matter, not really relevant here.) But that doesn’t mean that parents have to be cruel to their kids. That’s not necessary for the basic principal to work.
Actually, Virchow, the dodo who escalated in his dislike for the prospect of Neandertal man, didn’t hold with the idea of evolution; and the British are Darwin-indoctrinated, and reject any fossil men who are not “gracile” and “anatomically modern”; between those two at seeming cross-purposes (and both views are inherently racist) there’s been an absolutely nonsensical line of BS about our Neandertal ancestors.