As far as the Tate album, I honestly don't care if it is good music. I'm just not interested. To use an analogy I made elsewhere, if I'm buying a car, and Company A and Company B both put out some pretty sweet cars that may both potentially meet my needs and have a lot of bells and whistles I like, that's cool if all other things are equal. But let's assume they aren't equal. Instead, let's assume:
-Company B's owner physically attacked and sucker punched the owner of company A, who is a much smaller man who doesn't fight, and Company B's owner likes to constantly brag about that fact and how Company A's owner is just a "p*ssy" if he's not willing to go toe to toe and defend himself.
-Company B's owner also took a swing at and spit at other Company A employees, and continued to spit on them during a live trade show where they were engaged with an audience and the Company A employees couldn't do anything about it without stopping and ruining the show for the customers who had paid to see it. And assume this is all caught on video and that, again, Company B's owner doesn't deny it and actually brags about it.
-Company B's owner sees nothing wrong with berating groups of customers who don't act as enthusiastically as he likes, and tells them they suck.
-Company B's owner likes to go on the air and call customers "p*ssies" if they don't like what he is selling.
Sorry, but in those circumstances, I don't see competition as a good thing. Frankly, no matter how good a product Company B puts out, I'm just not interested in what they are selling. That's not taking sides. That's just having some self-respect as a consumer.
IMO, there a perfectly reasoned and mature reason to refuse to support what Tate is doing for reasons other than just "picking sides." When you assault, threaten, and spit on your band mates, and publicly brag about it at every opportunity... When you repeatedly insult your fans... When you repeatedly try to sabotage the efforts of the very people you built your career with in the first place and then play the victim... Sorry, but I'm not interested in getting behind that whether you have a worthwhile product to sell me or not. Will I give it one or two listens on YouTube or if I find it in the used bin just to satisfy my curiousity? Yeah, probably. But even if it's good music, there are too many reasons to not support it.