Phal Rescue - What to do with these roots!

[kg4usk]

Decided to take on a project/experiment...
Someone at work gave me two Phals that were pretty badly neglected. They were sitting outside for quite a while apparently and the medium was saturated and decomposing. One of them is only left with a few ariel roots, and I'm going to try and follow Ray's advice on reviving plants with no roots. The roots other one didn't seem quite as bad (relatively), and after trimming miles of nasty roots and the few soggy, paper-thin leaves, I'm left with what you see in the pic. Most of the roots were swollen and spongy in some areas. I let it dry out overnight and they kind of flattened out/shriveled. I then buried the roots in pre-soaked LECA for a day (no additional water) and the roots were again swollen like before.
Should I leave these roots, or lop 'em off? They're obviously holding water, but they don't seem healthy.

I think there's still life left in these plants, but I hope I didn't already do something to screw them up. I'm still a newbie to all this and I basically have no idea what I'm doing

[Paphluvr]

Am I missing something here? Where are the leaves? A stem and roots are all that is left? I’d consider that a goner.

[Roberta]

Compost. With reasonable leaves, there's a chance for a rootless plant to grow new roots (it needs at lsast SOME reserves), Leafless and mostly rootless? Not a chance.

[estación seca]

Those roots are probably dead. The stem definitely is dead.

[kg4usk]

Dang it. Thanks for the input!
So how bad can leaves be before they're considered no good? I should've grabbed a before pic, but it was probably too late regardless.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Ray]

The leaves of a phalaenopsis are the “factories” that produce the food and fuel - and are the storage vessels for them - that the plant needs to live and grow. The direct roots-to-growth path is very limited.