Well, keep in mind that as much as LP says they do everything for themselves and for nobody else (especially considering their declining record sales the past few years), there's got to be some part of them that hates the box that critics have put them into for thirteen years. That's got to piss you off, doesn't it? MTM comes out, "Oh look, they're trying ballads, still teenage garbage." ATS comes out, "Oh, you're Pink Floyd now? Fuck off. Trash." LT comes out, "Ah, there we go, run on back to nu-metal." Surely it grates on them - so when they start moving in a new direction, Mike or Chester or Brad or someone probably says, "What will they think of this, eh?" And that's not the sole motivation, of course, but it still factors in.
That could be sourced way back to MTM, where they intentionally did a 180 musically because they didn't want to be stuck in that box that HT and Meteora put them in. But, naturally, it was too late by then. They're never going to escape the stigma of being a nu-metal band for six years.
By the way, this topic got fucking intense. You guys are mad serious about this stuff. Not that that's a bad thing, it just doesn't happen here all that often any more.