I've always called Spock's Beard catchy prog, so I can totally see why many would like some of their shorter songs just as much, or even more, than the longer tunes.
But the post-Neal era is more varied than the Neal era? Sorry, but I don't see that at all.
And I definitely agree that the Neal era was far more consistent. I can count the number of forgettable tunes on the six Neal albums on one hand, while it would take several for those from the four post-Neal albums. I'd still love to know what they were thinking when they wrote that god-awful vocal melody in Surfing Down the Avalanche. Nothing like taking a tune that started out really good musically and destroying it with one of the ugliest vocal melodies I've ever heard. And I thought that the bulk of the self-titled 9th album was pretty average (hard to pick out specific tunes since I haven't listened to the bulk of it in years).
Lastly, Feel Euphoria is still, for my money, the 2nd best of the four post-Neal albums. Not as good as X, but far better than either Octane or s/t.