...but the LTE thing certainly shortens the odds in my opinion.
You keep saying that, but there is no connection whatsoever between LTE and any factors that would lead to MP coming back to DT. I don't know why you are making that leap. I don't see how LTE moves the needle at all on MP somehow returning.
I understand why you're saying this (and I agree with you, in these circumstances), but it wouldn't be the first time something like this happened. Not even going back to LTE1 time, people being concerned about what it meant for Dream Theater that Mike was playing with Avenged Sevenfold and "having the most fun ever" were actually right.
And I understand why
you are saying what you are saying. But while, yes, this wouldn't be the first time, an LTE reunion in and of itself isn't likely to the thing that moves the needle very much. Yeah, the A7X thing is a good example. But here's the thing with that: That again only
really addresses the MP side of things. And he's a guy that, as we have seen through the years,
often reacts based on emotion (and that is not a criticism--he admits to being the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, doesn't censor whatever is rattling around in his mind, etc.). As far as
his own feelings are concerned, heck yeah it could rekindle something that could make him long to be back in DT. But that is largely irrelevant, because the real question is whether it would be enough to move the other 4 members of DT to make an offer or to seriously consider overtures from Mike. And that is, again, where I don't see LTE moving the needle more than a tiny, tiny bit. Those 4, for the most part, are much more cold and calculating, and less likely to be swayed by a temporary emotional high.