I guess some of you are missing an important thing: team work. You can't take solo albums - or even Chinese - and suppose it's representative of how they would sound/write together. Even in the VR case - it was Duff and Slash, but Weiland's input got it to a totally new direction. When you're writing the backbone of a song, of course it's all about your style, like Izzy did in his solo albums. But the other members of the band all put their own spin and change the arrangement and/or feel of the song. Just look at what Bumblefoot did in Catcher and IRS.
In Izzy's absence GNR released a covers album, two songs on a soundtrack, and then CD. I'm just assuming this is what LGD meant by that. The fan base is all over the map on their likes and dislikes of CD but while the quality of CD is subjective, the quantity certainly isn't.
I've seen some people not really care whether or not Izzy is involved. Like many I expect him to have a similar involvement just like he's had since 2006. If he jumps in to help write songs, I'd be all over that like Roseanne Barr on a loose meat sandwich but like you, I do think they can do something without his presence.
Agreed. Would make sense to have Izzy back just for writing and live guest appearences. It's how he feels comfortable, I assume.
But I don't think by any means that he is absolutely needed to put out a new record. I mean, they can indeed release songs without him - not saying it would be better or worse, just saying they could. What I can say is: I much prefer Coma, Estranged, Locomotive and some other Illusion tracks than Pretty Tied Up and 14 Years. And I think those songs were epic because they were trying to do that back then, does not mean all they can write together is 10 minute tracks.