Well yeah, the business model needed to change, but they adopted a short term, whore-out, mo money now approach, instead of taking the time to create a long term plan. Both the short and long term approaches work, depending on your goals.
The problem is, Susan Tate is Tate's wife, her interest is in securing HER future, quickly, so that she can retire and life easy. Doesn't sound like that bad of an idea, but Geoff should be smarter than that. This is Geoff, Ed, Scott, and Michael's band. Susan had absolutely no experience prior to taking over Queensryche and if you talk to anyone she's dealt with over time, she's a horrible communicator.
They sold out what Queensryche was all about to get as much cash as they could now, sacrificing long term growth. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
I'm just talking business.
If you want to talk creative, then yeah, I agree, Slater should not be writing their songs. They should have taken the time to find someone worth investing in that could fill that second guitar spot and songwriter spot, and made that person "the guy." They didn't. They went cheap in hiring Mike Stone, and cheaper again in hiring the Tate's son in law. It's ridiculous.
But it's all about the short term cash grab.