Pretty much this. As much as I enjoyed them releasing albums during those years (as I wasn't a real diehard until late '06) and being somewhat overly present, the last album where they really had something to write about was Lost Highway with all the personal issues Richie and Dave were going through. There was some honesty behind it. After that they just went creatively blank up until some of the tracks of THINFS. There was an odd exception here and there, but for about 9 years they just kept pushing out records to be able to tour and make money. That's simply not a reason to do it if you don't have anything to say. And now that Jon has something to say again he's so ****ed up physically and mentally that he can't deliver that properly anymore. It's a shame, really.