Hmm. Don't think they finalized songs back then before going to EastWest Studios in 2023 with Emily - surely they are enough of a perfectionist band that they re-recorded everything then and made it super good, instead of keeping a ton of material from Mike's house. But I don't know that for sure. Brad said he didn't even meet Emily until they went to the studio - he met her many years after the rest of the band had been working with her. Brad may have just been a "Mike needs him for producer role as a shoulder to lean on for studio LP work" type of deal and Brad wanted to stay in the band after all, OR Brad trusted the other 3 the entire time to get things right before he eventually joined in (and he was never "out"). One of those two.
I guess song credits can tell us more about everything.
The confusing one is Rob since he didn't leave until very late 2022, or early 2023 just before Meteora 20. So he was aware of the sessions with Emily, likely even met her since he was involved as far back as 2019 with sessions. What a crazy situation with him.