Album Release Question

As many know, Hunting Party & One More Light weren't really well received on their initial release years. While some did like that LP went back to being a bit heavier, it felt very forced rather than their natural progression like what happened over the past decade before.

With that in mind, does anyone think that if OML & The Hunting Party had their releases flipped (OML 2014 & THP 2017) the overall reception would've been much more positive. I truly believe so. I mean my main issue is I think the writing is fairly weak on both albums in comparison to the rest but at least the sound would've felt more progressive than forced.