No i think LE is serious here.
I mean.
I like KTGC. Its a bit boring? Yes.
But, in comparison to new material, KTGC is a f*king masterpiece.
One can argue that all of Mark's albums before 1978 sucked. Because they never existed
This is why I'm talking about the natural path of a creative artist. You may notice a lot of creative folks do their best work when they are young. Paul Simon composed "The Sound Of Silence" when he was 21 or whatever. Mark wrote "Brothers In Arms" at 30 (I believe it was written long before it was recorded). Strauss composed Also sprach Zarathustra at 32, Rachmaninoff... You can go on.
You start with nothing, then you have everything, and you end up having nothing again. So I'd drop any expectations at all, MK's new stuff can't be groundbreaking.