Is it THAT big a leap though to say that when these 3 people, who are close friends and worked together in DT for 20 years (In the case of JP), get in a room and begin making music together again, it makes a reunion somewhat more likely than if those 3 people did not reconnect in that way.
Is THAT a big stretch? That it is "somewhat" more likely than if it didn't happen? No. But "Mangini should be very concerned about this" (which is what you said) is a HUGE stretch.
As another example (and let’s assume for the sake of argument he could still sing the songs) if Neal Schon announced that him and Steve Perry were getting together to make an album called the Schon/Perry Project. Would no one here go “oooooooooh, that’s interesting, I wonder if.....” and that’s a far more acrimonious split than DT.
I get what you are saying, but that analogy (like the ones Stadler cited) isn't really a close one if you dig a bit beneath the surface. In Journey, we don't know whether there is any sort of dissastisfaction between any of the members and Arnel. There could be. By contrast, in DT, we KNOW that the other 4 existing members are HIGHLY satisfied with Mangini. Second, Journey is a pretty dysfunctional band right now, and has been for a very long time, both with and without Perry. We have seen kind of a history of "anything goes" at any given moment. DT, on the other hand, is pretty stable. Third, if Schon wanted Perry, he is a strong enough personality, and now has enough control of the band that it would likely happen. In DT, there really doesn't appear to be any particular member who has that much control. I mean, if JP REALLY felt strongly about something, he is a strong enough personality that he would push hard enough to make it happen. But from everything I have seen of him, he would not do that at the expense of disagreeing so strongly with the rest of his bandmates unless he really felt the future of the band was at stake. Finally, Journey has a history of unceremoniously ousting members they have decided they no longer wanted. You can make a case that DT did similar things with Charlie and Derek. I would make a case that both of DT's situations were different. But that said, I wouldn't disagree too strongly with anyone arguing against this last point on that basis. If this were the ONLY point, it would be pretty weak. But coupled with the other 3, it carries more weight.