Hopefully, a little bit of both. Basically, just looking for a little more objectivity. "The guitars (or keyboards) need to be a little further back in the mix." "That drum sound is horrible." "Does that song really need three 2-minute long instrumental sections?"
I think for any of those above, they were conscious choices by JP. Chycki clearly knows how to get a great drum sound, if you listen to any of his interviews, the guy knows what he's doing. Meaning, the drums sound the way because JP wanted them to.
Same with the 2-minute instrumental sections, or the overall mix. JP is the producer, and he will have directed the guys.
Tldr, you actually want less JP. The funny thing is, I actually don't disagree with any of your "requests", but I don't know who else would, or could, step up. An outside producer would essentially have to exert more power than any of the other DT members have in the last 5 years. Not gonna happen.
Rumbo is right with these. Chycki (and any other mixer/engineer) will get the sound the producer asks for. At the end of the day, that's what he gets paid for, to make things sound the way the producer (JP) wants things to sound.
About the looong instrumental sections, they've trimmed a lot of that in the last 3 albums and the songs have been more concise. That was a problem, imo, on the era between TOT - BC&SL.
Commenting on the external producer case, getting a sole external producer like they had in the past (Kevin Shirley, for example) is never gonna happen, that's for sure. What we can hope for is that they get someone to
co-produce the albums with JP, because, let's be honest, it's not like JP is gonna leave the production duties anytime soon, but we can, hopefully, get someone who is experienced enough and respected by JP and the rest of the band, so he can give some input into the direction the albums should go, specially in the sound/mix aspects of the album production.
That way, we could have JP taking care of the musical side of things, while the co-producer could focus on getting a better sound and feel for the album. That's what I see could happen in the future.