I agree with many of your opinions. But at the end of the day These Days was bon jovi's biggest dissapointment in terms of the expectations (following SWW)I believe the band had for the album. Richie mentioned many times (during the late 90's) that he thought these days was their finest work. The response to these days by the US (who were in the last days of the grunge era) was flat out pathetic. I moved to the US in 1996 after living in the UK the previous 3 years and was shocked to learn that the album had pretty much no chance due to america's obsession with trends and fashion. In Europe and Asia, the album established them as heavy weights that could always make noise on the music scene, in the US it began whispers that they were over (popularity wise). Jon once said when crush was released that he looked at the billboard charts and had no idea where he fit in. So although i feel that crush was a weak follow up to what i consider their best work in terms of creativity, i cannot deny the pop-ish approach was instrumental in bringing back the american audience, and continued bon jovi's internationalism following TD and KTF.