2) Childish social media attacks aside, I think these two folks are overselling their status as former members of DT for their own gain. It makes sense to some point because that's basically the only thing that's going to make their music sell and be heard (even though Sherinian and Portnoy have had tens of projects, their ex-DT status is the only thing keeping them under the radar) but they shouldn't abuse it. It's not intelligent to sell SoA as the new self-proclaimed kings of Prog Metal because they're not and they have a long mountain to climb before they aspire to anything close to what they did with DT (and what DT is doing with Mangini), and a mountain they won't probably have the time to climb because age forgives no one.
What's surprising to me is how Portnoy undersells DT on his twitter handle. Looking at it, here is the order in which he lists the bands he has played with:
Sons Of Apollo, The Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, Flying Colors, Metal Allegiance, Neal Morse, Dream Theater, Adrenaline Mob, Avenged Sevenfold, Twisted Sister
Dream Theater is lower than Metal Allegiance? I get listing Sons of Apollo first, since it is his current most active full-time band (until they go on hiatus in a year), but Dream Theater is billed lower than Winery Dogs? Talking about underselling the band you were with for 25 years.
Also, that is almost a slap in the face to Neal Morse to list him so low. Below Metal Allegiance. Really?? Neal Morse (as a solo artist and the Neal Morse Band) is by far the most prolific of the bands he is in with Neal, yet it gets their lowest billing on his own twitter handle. Nice.