Don't remember him pulling chest voice due to poor resonance being throughout Awake. There are times where he spreads vowels but they weren't due to poor resonance.
Well, I'm not a vocalist or an expert on the profession but something like 'glorified' doesn't seem any worse than in the high choruses of LSoaD (on 'Dreaaam'). I don't think JLB is known to have great technique overall anyway, especially in the breathy and nasal parts which are basically the signature aspects of his voice and is what many people actually like about him.
It's hard to explain and I may not be able to explain to someone who doesn't sing. I'm not trying to be condescending by saying that. It would be like someone trying to explain to me a comparable technique in drumming but I'll try.
For the purpose of this example let's say there are only three gears the voice can be in. Chest voice, mixed voice, and head voice. When vocal folds oscillate you can feel vibrations in your chest, neck/face, eyes and upward wrapping around the head. Regardless of where these vibrations are you need to focus the spread of sound through the bones in the face. James is not properly bringing the focus forward into his face and trapping the quality of the resonance in his throat. By doing this he can't hold notes as long and he slides into the notes a lot instead of hitting them precisely.
I thought I knew what you might have been talking about, but then I got lost on your example. Is it similar to how he shouts certain parts in the higher register? (see Moment of Betrayal final chorus)
Yes, notice how he is putting a lot of effort into it and sliding into each note. It's hard for him to hit the note precisely.
I'm not saying you're wrong at all. I've had vocal training, I know exactly the mechanisms you're referring to and yes, they are important when trying to give a performance.
So with that in mind... A singer using perfect technique all the time does not automatically equate to a "Good" singer. Just like a guitar player using perfect fingering and picking all the time doesn't mean he's automatically a "Good" guitar player, either. He may be able to play, but it's his stylistic choices when using those techniques is what makes that musician someone you like to listen to. And many times, abandoning perfect adherence to those techniques
is where your style comes from.
Oddly enough, I'm in the camp that JP was a rather "Soulless" guitar player with no emotion until the COS release. He could play with amazing technique, but his solo's sounded robotic and too perfect to me, missing a lot of that human element of stylistic emotion until about COS to my ears. Doesn't mean I don't love I&W or Awake... I do.
Freddy Mercury, Chris Cornell, Geoff Tate, Bruce Dickenson, Rob Halford, David Bowie, John Lennon.... None of these people use perfect technique either yet are regarded as some of the top male rock vocalists through modern times. Why? Because of their stylistic choices that fit their voice. Not that they had perfect sense when to engage their head voice 100% of the time. They sang what they felt fit the music.