Agreed 100% on all you said, including Transatlantic.
Just in general, I have to say, whenever it's just a different rotational lineup of usual suspects (MP, Stolt, Morse etc etc), I just end up in "I'll listen, but expectations aren't high" mode. At some point the reality is, most musicians end up repeating themselves one way or the other, and just shuffling the order around isn't going to change that.