It's not surprising to me. Say It Isn't So was a total flop, so that extra attention gathered from It's My Life needed to go somewhere. And I think with time it's legacy probably increased, given how they never really did another big power ballad like this ever since. Plus, I think the music video in Venice was quite a good one, by their standards. When I first switched from casual to a diehard around 2008, I couldn't understand why Jon completely ignored it on the setlist, especially given how the more popular ballads were more vocally challenging.

I just think, much like with the Bounce era songs, he completely underestimated the local element of songs popularity and not playing the European or South American hits even in those markets, just because those songs were not popular in US.