@Kev: Nah, I personally never did. I know a lot of people bought into every statement they made right after MP's departure, I.e. the communications, the continuation of YtseJam etc., but maybe because I've worked for the last 13 years in the corporate world, I knew that maybe 50% of those things wouldn't come to fruition. I also can't fault them; on one hand they likely had no idea how this would shake out in the long run, and on the other, soothing the fans' minds was more important at that time than being historically accurate in the long run.
That said, I think the let go of the reins too much. They lost the personability they used to have, IMO. And I also just can't imagine that out of the 5 guys that are in the band, there isn't a single one who wouldn't be up to the task of doing some band-fan communication.