I see your point, but it all depends of course whether one indeed considers those "low" albums to be better than other bands' output. I obviously don't listen to music I don't enjoy, so in my mind I will compare it to the other recent albums I liked (Steven Wilson, Muse etc). There I must, personally, confess that no, I don't think those low DT albums are as good. I don't really listen to Systematic Chaos or DT12, at all at this point. ADTOE gets the occasional spin because there was something fresh about it. But there are definitely DT albums that I consider as bad as other bands' bad albums. DT doesn't have that "implicit offset" to me that it seems to have for some of you.
Maybe that's why I think they should try harder.