I wonder if there's a thread where Rob couldn't come close to doing /thread with one post...
Ha! I'm flattered. Although, in fairness, you're putting up a rather good counterargument so you know -- maybe this is that thread.
Er, weird example, but dog shows. They're not reaaaally gaugeing which dog is the most attractive - mainly because the judges would never be able to show their faces in public again, but the criteria is more along the lines of "Which of these dogs looks most like a dog." And then someone comes along and goes "Oh, this is a perfect dog, let's give it the dog award for dogness, it must have taken a lot of talent to be a dog but oh my dog, this dog's done it."
I kinda think Dream Theater are the top of their breed. They're top dog. They've won a... lifetime supply of Pedigree Chum. When it comes to making big ol' songs full of time signatures and key changes and augmented sweeps, there is no dog finer. And that's what us judges like. It's our common ground, so the ones that match that rough template are naturally gonna come off a little bit better. While a song like Disappear is authentically heartrending - and relatively experimental, actually - there are about fifty other dogs in that breed which can do it better. Whereas, when Dream Theater do Dream Theater, they're more or less unbeatable.
So, the people who are gravitating towards Dream Theater are the kind of people who like things which are innately Dream Theaterry, and so if you kind of take the "average" fan opinion, they're more likely to dig Under a Glass Moon than Wait for Sleep. Because we're the kind of people who like music that sounds like Dream Theater!
Incidentally, I'd wager that the songs that are most outside the Dream Theater comfort zone are probably among the more controversial ones. I wouldn't be surprised if, if everyone were to individually rank the songs on IAW, there would be a lot of instances of Wait for Sleep in the top four, but the number of people who
weren't so keen would cancel it out. This kinda works the other way, too - because DT are known for relatively thoughtful, melodic songs, the brutally rhythmic and borderline spastic The Dark Eternal Night also tends to get the shaft. Although there are a lot of people who love it.
I'm feeling increasingly like I'm talking out of my arse, right now, seeing as I have absolutely
nothing to substantiate any of this with, so I'm going to stop typing while I'm ahead. Ish.
Purely guesswork.