I like the idea of the instrumedley. It had a lot of moving parts and was really cool, but I hate medleys. I hate splicing together 4 or 5 songs. I like complete songs. The SC tour boots have so many great setlist combinations, but once I get to the encore, I shut them off.
Yep, I am not a fan of medleys either, and remember that Petrucci hates them, so what the power dynamic is in the band going forward will dictate if we get any of those. I'd be down for a mashup (those are way better than medleys, if we have to get one). When done well, those can be most excellent. Medleys are just teases.
Understanding that John doesn't like them... would that still be a fair compromise? A medley of songs from the last few records? (Though, I'm on record as saying that I can't imagine Mike P. not playing those songs in full. I feel he's more Bruce Dickinson/Phil Collins than Ian Gillan.
Compromises could come on a more macro level than micro ones, meaning instead of "hey, we will compromise on situations a, b, c and d," Petrucci might say to Portnoy, "Okay, we will do it my way on a and c, and you can have your way on b and d." (if that makes sense)
Given how little regard the band seemed to have for their own material once the touring cycles for each album was done (it has already been talked up, about how not many songs from the Mangini era were brought back on late tours), they could very well be just fine with not playing much from those five albums, although I still think Breaking All Illusions and The Alien are the most likely songs to appear in the set list on the next tour.