When it comes to music, nothing pisses me off more than people saying "Oh these guys suck now, they should sound like they did 10 years ago." Well people....the point of music and releasing new albums is to evolve. Experiment in different styles, with different instruments, different sounds, different vocals, etc. If you're going to release the same shit over and over again, what's the point?
Like Billie Joe said in the AP article (I believe)...they could have taken a step back or stayed where they were, but they chose to move forward. That's what bands do. That's what music is all about, evolving into new and different things.
Now obviously every band has their own "purists" who only like a band before they become mainstream. And some of them really feel the music is worse. But I mean bands need to evolve and experiment. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not selling out, it's attempting to make better music. Expanding into other genres, or expanding on a genre.