Rob started pulling some punches to land others quite some time ago. They know how to pace a setlist to accommodate him, so was always able to hit the important bits. The Jawbreaker thing would certainly qualify. The problem is that he had to keep holding back more and more, so the important bits became fewer and fewer. Case in point, if it took four songs for him to really make his presence known, that's really a bummer. And Riding was one he'd learned to sing pretty well even for an old guy, so if he's struggling with that now, another bummer.
For my part I tuned out when he couldn't belt out CONDEMNED TO HELL any more. The Sentinel was always a highlight for me, and when he couldn't do it anymore it just became depressing. It sounds like they keep putting together nice setlists which I wouldn't mind seeing, but you don't have the KK/Tipton thing anymore, and it saddens me to hear Rob nowadays, so I just skip the whole thing. That said, it does make me happy that they're still selling midsized venues.
I agree about The Sentinel. I hate that he cut out that Condemned to Hell high note years ago.
https://youtu.be/_oJ7NZBD52c?si=heJs_looqce8sApw&t=320Here is the video from the show I saw. I queued it up to Riding on the Wind. Listening back, I wouldn't say that he truly struggled. It's just that his enunciation seems to fade a little when he's singing in that style live, and his voice is older and grittier than the clean, high notes of his younger days. But the clean "Wiiiiiiiind" in the chorus is great.
Again, my point of comparison is hearing that song for the last 20 years on Live Insurrection, which was recorded in 2000. So in my mind, I'm thinking "fuck, it just doesn't sound as good as I'm used to hearing" but in reality, he's still pretty damn good. I'm just used to my favorite recording of the song from 22 years prior to that show.
The end of Jawbreaker is around 18:30, and that's when he just started wailing away and held the last note out. His clean singing is still fantastic, like on Beyond the Realms of Death.