That doesn't sound like a jab to me, just cold sincerity. It's clear James had been feeling that way for quite some years before Portnoy's departure and finally had the opportunity of speaking his mind. I do agree with him with the spotlight thing, which was been mentioned many times in this thread. Even in Neal Morse shows, where Mike Portnoy is just 'the drummer', he is pretty much at the frontline with his playing style, his stage nuances, his body language, etc.
Mike is a guy with enormous charisma and personality, and that shows on stage. He's the guy that speaks, the 'open minded musician', the social media personality, the man that makes most interviews and the guy that is constantly speaking to his fans and feeding them with content. In the MP Warriors world, it's cool to love everything he puts out because he is a hard worker and he seems like a pretty cool guy to hang with. He was probably the biggest man in Dream Theater from 2007 - 2010 in an 'influential' point of view, so that kinda fell apart at the end because the weights weren't balanced anymore. I still insist that their peak as a band was 2006, with their 20th Anniversary World Tour and Score. Portnoy was doing his usual thing of being everywhere, but you knew the other 4 guys were working their assess off as well. Not to say they didn't do so from 2007 - 2010, it's just that they weren't...there, you know? I saw both Chaos in Motion and Black Clouds shows and it did feel a lot like 'The MP Band Experience' to me. It was still DT, I still loved the shows, but it was kind of awkward at times. It's a nice chemistry with Neal Morse for example, but I can see that clashing big time with James LaBrie.