Just looking at things from an MP-to-DT perspective, we know that:
-Mike had rejoined JP to play on his solo album, Terminal Velocity, and did a tour with him and Dave LaRue (which I went to, and it was AWESOME).
-Mike had rejoined JP and JR to do LTE3 not long after, and it seemed like there was a lot of positive vibes from both John and Jordan during those sessions. Supposedly, their contract with Inside Out also puts them at having one more LTE album to do, so there was always the expectation that those three would continue to play together in the near future.
-Mike began working with John and the band to provide back catalog music for the Lost Not Forgotten Archives, and while releases in this series have seemingly come to a halt this year, it now seems more likely that they'll continue this series with more re-issues and brand new/never-before-released content from MP's personal library of DT music past.
-Mike has reconnected with JLB and become friendly again, and both have publicly announced their openness to being friends after all this time. Hopefully it sticks and stays that way!
-Mike has become more open to seeing DT in concert, and even noted how weird it was to watch the band from the audience. He was seen visiting the band backstage during shows he went to as well, and seemed to be very friendly with everyone, including taking pics with some of them.
All of the MP-conspiracy theorists were really reading into these situations and felt like this was inevitable, but hopefully they're not being a-holes about it. This is definitely a surprise, but it isn't really all that surprising when you consider how MP has become closer to the band in recent years. Couple that with MP's declining number of bands and side-projects in the past two years since the pandemic, and things were starting to slow down for him. I don't know if this was intentional or just a unique set of circumstances that seemed to line up, but it seems like MP and JP decided now was the time for this to happen. Hopefully things will work out for Mangini in his future endeavors and that they're all still on friendly terms.
It would be melt my heart to see a show in the future where MP has his twin monster and Mangini comes out to jam with them. That would say to me that they're all still friends and show the fans that there's no animosity between them all.
-Marc.