However-- that is indeed your opinion. I, and a lot of other fans, don't think it's a "bad change". Just because you don't like it, doesn't make it a bad thing.
Just because a band puts out something that you don't like doesn't inherently make it bad. It's good music. Just not your kind of thing. It's still Linkin Park.
I, for one, love everything LP has come out with. HT/Reanimation/Meteora/MTM/ATS. I want them to keep on doing the music they want, and not listen to what people want them to sound like. It's just more exciting that way-- you never know what they're going to do next.
Love it, or hate it, you can't deny that Linkin Park is a unique band in how they change from album to album-- even with keeping the same kind of sound between Hybrid Theory and Meteora, they pulled off plenty of new, exciting things that kept everything fresh. They know how to make good music, regardless of genre-- but the genre hopping I think is what people complain about, because not many other bands ((That I know of)) change constantly each album, constantly reinventing their sound.
I think you're in it for more "Rock" than anything else, which is why you hated ATS-- because it wasn't in your genre preferences. It came completely out of left field. I, for one, just like to sit back and enjoy the ride. I was originally in it for the rock too-- but Linkin Park have brought so much more to the table than that in the past few years, it really is quite amazing. I want them to keep on doing what they want to do, without constricting themselves to a single mindset. However-- As such, I don't mind if they work in some of their old sound into anything, because I know that Linkin Park will keep things fresh. The most exciting thing is that you just don't know what to expect with new songs. I love that feeling.