Like said @GroundXero above, LP are a very smart band. Besides the musical talent, they adapted to the game better than most of its peers. An album like MTM in 2003 would have been obliterated. Instead, they introduced small hints of experimentation in Meteora, and new how to deal with their label. For starters, we've all heard these days Mike saying how they were trying to find a balance in Meteora between what was expected from them and their experimental side. Hell, when he said in the Stern interview "We told the label to have the first two singles, but eventually BTH has to be a single, trust us". Even a big band like Anthrax shoots themselves in the feet in the 90's for not choosing the right timing in the singles.
Even after ATS they knew that, yeah, it's great to do wherever they want, but they can't get lost in the weirdness externally. What do they do? They release Burn it Down, a banger that is totally what's expected from them to gain both new audiences and the ones that runaway with MTM and ATS.
Yes, sometimes those outings go wrong (Recharged anybody?). But let's not be naive, you don't stay at the top of the game just making good music.