I agree with everything you're saying, but I think there was definitely more there that was scrapped because of Warner. There was creativity, but it could've been more.
Now what I have to wonder is, was the "sophomore album" really "ridiculously bad", or just "ridiculous"? Phoenix seems undecided in the Making of Meteora DVD. I doubt the music was bad, but it was too ridiculous for the label's liking, so it was scrapped.