I've thought about that a few times.
In a way, I'm mildly confident the state of the market has always been in the back of the heads of (some) band members. I re-watched part of the ATS making-of recently, and in there you can see in spots how the band was uncertain and stressed about going full "unconventional" with the song structures and the singles.
It's not at all a criticism about the artistic value of the band. I just think, maybe even unconsciously, this element has always been there one way or another. The amplitude of the its impact, that's something we can never know for sure though.
That said, when most of the songs you have written in your career are 2:30 to 3:30, you probably also just mostly enjoy writing sweet brief tracks