I thought it was okay- it tried to appeal to both new fans with the hits and included some “rare” stuff for the fans. The band had been around for almost 20 years by that point and hadn’t put out a greatest hits compilation and by 2008 it was probably the last time it would have made sense to do so with the changing record industry and dwindling physical sales. Greatest Hits have always been a cash grab so I hope the band made a little dough with their back catalog. I certainly don’t think it hurt them.
Exactly. I can't remember for certain, but being that they were moving to Roadrunner at that time, I think Atlantic was already planning on putting together a compilation of some sort anyway, with or without the band's approval, because they could. So if it was inevitably going to happen, I'd rather have MP involved than not, because he would have had a much better handle on what tracks would most likely appeal to new listeners, as well as to throw in some (relative) rarities to satisfy the diehards.
My issues with this specific one are:
1) the perplexing song choices (Panic Attack & Metropolis aren't included despite them being some of the band's most popular songs, yet Lifting Shadows & I Walk Beside You are)
2) the inclusion of badly spliced radio edits (when the full songs would've fit within the CD space if they hadn't arbitrarily split it into Dark Side/Light Side)
3) the bad remixes of the I&W tracks
Don't forget there was always a method to MP's madness. To go into detail:
1) I believe MP regretted not including PA in hindsight - can't remember, but I believe PA appeared in Rock Band after GH+21 was released, and so why it wasn't included. Metropolis probably wasn't included because in general a compilation is to appeal to people who are new to the band, and considering that PMU, TtT and AD were all singles from IaW, it make sense they would be included and Metropolis not. It could be argued that LtL could have been selected too, since it's a fan favorite.
2) This was done in part to provide something "new" to the established fan base. And since MP opted to keep the 2 sides of the band separate, it also helped with him being able to include more tracks.
3) You and many others may not like them, but that's not necessarily true for everyone. Obviously, a big part of this was because MP hated the triggered drums that Prater used. But instead of just swapping the drums, he decided to have the full tracks remixed so as to (once again) give the fans something new rather than the same old, same old.