Shorter songs do not mean it's necessarily accessible.
Yeah, but they are in DT12... Talking about songs like TEI, Looking Glass or The Bigger Picture, there is no shaman intro, there is no instrumental breakdown in the middle of song that last 3-5 minutes, etc...
The structure of the songs follows pretty close the "Intro till Outro".
They're accessible for prog, but honestly they're still not really mainstream accessible, or something you could hear on the radio, especially once you factor in the style.
I'd say about half of FII was quite radio friendly, as that's what the record label demanded, but DT12 still sounds like a prog band just writing shorter songs. Even though The Looking Glass may be a relatively simpler song, the style is very old school (and apparently classic Rush, but I wouldn't know), not an attempt at modern or mainstream at all.
TEI is something that could fit in as a modern mainstream metal, but they've always included the "singles" like that.
Ah, it all goes to space if you mean "general mainstream music"
Yeah, I kinda do, but I'm not talking all out pop.
I do agree with you that it's more accessible than ADTOE, but we're still talking an album with a 20 minute epic, an instrumental into, plus another instrumental. Put that in context.