Here's what happened. Stadler was in a hurry one day, and he had some last minute grocery shopping to do. He started to pull into a parking spot, but saw that there was a shopping cart right in the middle of that spot, probably left there by Altressa Cox-Blackwell. He swerved, but was too late, hitting both the cart and the car next to him, causing his airbag to deploy. When he came to, he thought he was OK and went about his life, never realizing that the mild concussion caused a rare form of insanity that causes one not to like Grace Under Pressure.
The issue for me has never been that he dislikes it (people like what they like) it's that he expects it to be something it isn't. There's a pretty clear record of what they (Neil in particular) wanted to do with this album. Whether they succeeded is another argument entirely. (I think they did succeed.)
Of course, you probably know that for me, that's all that matters: how close did the band get to the sound in their head. But - and not to argue, but to continue the discussion - I would argue that they never went back to that drum sound again, at least not in any meaningful way, so one can assume that even if that was what they were going for, the destination didn't live up to the journey.
And above, I don't mean "epic" in the sense of wicked, cross-kit tom fill, but just something with the gravitas of the words themselves: Gunfire, prison, walls... Like I said, like that fill at the end of the intro to Subdivisions (the snare roll).
EDIT: And let's be clear: it's not what I EXPECT. I expect nothing from my artists except that they be as true to themselves as they can. Rush has, what, ten or twelve other albums that touch me more. That's all. Wouldn't have them change it, I'm not calling for them to go back and re-record it or anything like that, I just prefer what came before and what came after better, that's all.