...So do you think people just hate Mangini as a person? That no one can possibly dislike his playing? Not sure what you're trying to say here.
I assure you it's very little to do with him as a person and much more about us (the fans in general). I would even question whether any of the assessments reflect any part of MM's playing, or whether it's
mostly just opinionated fans imposing their preconceptions and expectations on everyone around them. Sure, people derive their interpretation from the source, but most of it says more about the listener and the fans than the player or the musicians. We all have preferences, and that's what influences what we expect, and in turn creates our conceptions about the band and players in general.
There's really no conception of what makes the perfect drummer unless I try and define it and I find some others to subjectively agree. There's no real objectivity in music, just opinions that might seem agreeable to some and maybe some inherently meaningless patterns that can assist our ability to interpret something from a particular point of view. I mean, it's abstract sound we're talking about here, in what world is one particular expression of a snare pop "better" than any other? When it's aesthetically pleasing? By what standard do you determine this? Furthermore, as soon as you define the 'rules' of how something should sound; define a particular pattern, you might even be limiting potential creativity without realising.
So, I conclude that MM is different (big shocker that one), and that
most assessments of his playing are loaded with comparative preconceptions and expectations before they've even tried to appreciate his style in and of itself, or even consider the different ways he expresses differing styles. I'm being deliberately vague here because part of my point is that our conception of these sounds should be somewhat undefined and up to interpretation unless we're so sure of ourselves and our preferences that we wouldn't want them to change. Which is obviously not the case because most of us claim to want experimentation and for DT to play 'out of the box', forgetting that
we're the ones that put them in the box in the first place! And besides, change is a constant.
I dunno.. Maybe everyone does realise that they're talking about themselves more than MM or anyone else, but it seems to me that those that are willing to make such bold claims as "MM doesn't play with emotion" either don't realise that there's no way they could possibly know this and is probably not even true. Or they truly believe that their conception of the player's sound is absolute. Or perhaps it's just the easiest way for them to express the 'differences' in their conception of different players and play styles.
They're both amazing drummers in their own right so whatever, the whole thing seems crazy. But you heard it from me so I guess I'm just talking about myself and I'm the crazy one.