I'd say your argument of fans influencing setlist changes in 2007 is untrue. They started the rotating sets also because they started selling those shows. A few things here and there later on might have been influenced by fan requests but we'll never know that for sure. Just because for example APFMH came back in 2008 for a while doesn't mean the countless petitions for years actually worked, like you said,
I honestly don't recall setlists being a big "issue" before MTM. It just got more and more with each album because they had to leave out more and more songs.